Chapter 34: All Girls Club.
The house that the girls gave to Seven and his team was surprisingly spacious, it was a five-bedroom place that looked relatively untouched from the outside, but the inside revealed had been blatantly fixed up and fairly recently by the looks of it, like they were expecting to turn it into a dorm house for more arrivals to their little crew.
The place looked like a nice family home that had been constructed with the hope of a growing middle-class family moving in and seeking shelter from the world within its walls.
It had a spacious living room with a large leather sofa and armchairs as well as a love seat that Ven grabbed before anyone could beat him to it pulling Gregory into his lap as he spread himself out upon it.
It all faced a large old-style TV which Seven had absolutely no idea how he even knew what it was let alone what it was supposed to do given he'd never seen one operate.
There was a large spacious kitchen that had a huge number of appliances that were all utterly useless without any kind of power to them but the obvious change was that the oven was a log burner now so that whoever lived here could still cook their meals, there was even a neat little stack of precut wood stack next to it.
Shepherd had told them this is where they would be living for their stay and said that while they were not prisoners here she asked them not to go wandering about too much as their presence might be upsetting to some, she also said she would be back soon to grab them to start discussing plans for getting into Raven Rock.
But that didn't stop the gang from splitting up to go and explore every inch of their new temporary home, it wasn't long before Visa had claimed the master bedroom with its large double bed for herself and Seven while Ven had snagged the only other bedroom with a double bed for himself and Gregory.
Though to be fair it wasn't like the others minded as it sure beats sleeping on the floor or in a bloody broken down chair, the other three bedrooms all had single beds in them as they looked like they had once been designed for children and to make themselves a double bed Riss and Runs snagged the spare mattress from the unused room which Malakai was fine with as he said a single mattress was more than enough for him, which kinda surprised Seven given the Arachnakai boy's size.
All in all the group seemed to have landed on their feet despite getting shot down, crashing and nearly dying in a firefight with super mutants, the scavenger group didn't seem all that bad to be fair but Seven had advised them all to keep their guards up as you never quite knew what desperation would drive normally good people to do.
After about an hour there was a knock at the door and Seven went to open it only to find the girl in the blue coat standing there looking somewhat embarrassed and hopeful.
"Umm hi there I was kinda umm wondering if I could speak to the spider guy?' she said in a rather nervous sounding voice as she craned her neck a little to look up at Seven who was still in his power armour much to Visa's annoyance.
"Sure come on in and his name is Malakai just so you know," Seven said stepping clear of the doorway to allow her to pass him and enter their new home.
Malakai was sat in the centre of the living room floor doing that whole spider-shaped loaf of bread thing he did when he wanted to rest his legs by folding them up under him, he looked up from the old book he'd found and was currently engrossed in as the young woman entered.
"Umm hello Malakai, I was umm just wondering, what you said about my coat, do you err, really think you can repair it like you said, its umm kinda really important to me as my mother gave it to me before I lost her and I umm have absolutely no clue how to fix it, the tear has been getting bigger for a while now and I'm scared I'm going to lose it," she said in a very shy and hopeful sounding voice as she stood before him wringing her hands as she felt every set of eyes and one tongue in the room fix on her.
Malakai's face lit up and his two large front-facing eyes did their whole utterly amazing thing again as he smiled at her, he unfurled his legs from under him and rose up to his full heigh making the woman take a nervous step backwards bumping into the armoured chest of Seven who was stood directly behind her.
She glanced back at him and he smiled as he took his helmet off so she could see his face for the first time, "Don't be scared, Malakai is as gentle as they come, he wouldn't hurt anyone, I know he looks different and different can be scary, but trust me it can also be the best thing that ever happens to you" he said shooting a warm smile at Visa who had stretched out her large frame on the couch.
The woman looked back at Malakai who was still smiling at her warmly and she seemed to take a deep breath to steady her nerves as she stepped forwards toward him, to his credit the large Arachnakai boy simply stood there and let her come to him like he was trying to tame a skittish horse or something.
"May I?' he asked gesturing to her coat and the woman nodded before taking it off and gingerly handing it to him.
Malakai lifted the coat up and in his expert hands began to turn it in a multitude of directions to examine it closely, "Hmmm other than the obvious tear there are a few patches of slight damage here and there and one or two burst seams but other than that it's in very good condition, I should be able to fix this up for you no problem, in fact, I should be able to improve it for you" he said confidently as he examined some seams closely.
"Improve it?" she asked curiously and Malakai nodded.
"Yeah a lot of these old cotton stitches are likely to break down the line, I think it would be best if I simply cut them all out and replace them with silk ones, that way they will never tear or snap, shouldn't take me more than an hour if I can get my hands on some sewing needles," he said.
"An hour!" she exclaimed surprisingly loudly making Malakai jump and all of the rest of them.
"W-W-Well I could do it faster but it's not going to be as nearly a good quality..." Malakai began to stammer embarrassedly.
"N-No! Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to yell I was just surprised when you said an hour, I thought you were going to say days, not an hour!" the woman exclaimed and Malakai's face brightened back up as he understood her confusion.
"From what I hear from a very reliable source Arachnakai are the best tailors in most likely the world and trust me when I say that I've seen just how strong that silk of his is first hand, it saved us all from dying in that Vertibird crash, so if it can hold my metal ass, two huge claws, an eight-foot NightStalker girl and two humans up through that without breaking and he barely had time to stick that shit together then his carefully woven threads could probably hold the bloody world up," Seven said confidently giving Malakai a bright smile which seemed to do exactly as intended and give the young spider boy a boost of confidence.
The young woman looked awestruck but then her face changed, "I umm don't exactly have a way to pay you for this, but I umm could get you a very good sewing kit if that would be a fair exchange?" she asked and Malakai smiled brightly and nodded.
"That would be fine, I'd need it to do the work anyway and if I could keep it afterwards that would really help," he said and she nodded eagerly.
"Oh of course! It would be like your pay for the job if that's not too little for you" she said and Malakai agreed that that would be fine.
The woman shot off and was back in less than five minutes bringing with her what looked like a red fishing tackle box that turned out to contain every kind of needle and sewing tool that Seven's utterly baffled mind could fathom, this really seemed to brighten Malakai up and he wasted no time getting to work.
The woman decided to stick around and wait for him to finish and while she waited Seven decided to ask her about this place to see what he could learn.
"So this seems like a nice place you guys have here, what's the story behind it?" he asked smiling at the woman who they'd learned was called Maria as he settled onto the couch next to Visa (minus his power armour which now stood like a silent guardian next to them) as she positively dragged him down into her lap and wrapped her whole scaly self around him.
"Oh this place is wonderful, I'm so glad the girls found me and freed me from those fuckers in Paradise Falls," she said which caused Seven to cock his head slightly.
"Paradise Falls?" he asked and Maria looked nervous now before nodding.
"It's a large outdoor shopping centre that got taken over and converted by a large group of Raiders a long time ago, now god only knows how many raider groups operate out of it but it's basically the slave capital of the Captial Wasteland," she said.
The mere mention of the word Slaver set all of them on edge, none more so than Gregory who began to look like he might go into a full-on panic attack clutching desperately at Ven's chest as if seeking reassurance that they weren't going to come for him.
Ven growled deeply and angrily as he wrapped his gentle human boy up in his arms and his tail making sure he had a full shield made of scaled muscle between him and the world as he gently soothed him.
Maria noticed this and glanced between them in curiosity before returning her gaze to Seven with the unasked but obviously present question in her eyes.
"Gregory here used to be a slave to something called Ceaser's Legion back up north where we came from, he escaped from them and was on the run when we found him or rather he found us, we took him in and took him with us and he fell in love with his big scaly heart shield there along the way and visa versa, of course, we swore to him that we would never allow him to be a slave to anyone ever again and that is a promise I or anyone in this room will ever break, trust me if those slave taking bastards to come within a hundred miles of him or any one of us they will regret it a thousandfold," Seven snarled angrily as he clenched his fists in fury.
Visa gently snuggled him and very gently teased his fists open so she could take his hands in her much larger ones to soothe his boiling anger.
"We have zero tolerance for slave taking fucks, every one of us in this room has some experience in knowing what it feels like to have your will taken away from you and to be nothing more than a plaything for others, so don't fear you are among friends with us," Seven said.
This seemed to embolden Maria as she could plainly see that Seven and Gregory's outbursts of differing emotions were as raw and as real as it got, she seemed to be under no illusions that the pair were telling the truth.
"Well most of us here are escaped slaves from that place, they're capture teams come out and they zap you with this gun that just kinda I dunno how to describe it, blanks your mind for a bit I guess, when you come too you got a fucking bomb collar on and they tell you to get your ass to Paradise Falls or they'll detonate it and pop your head like a pimple, after what most of us went through both in that place and with the people who eventually bought us I think I speak for every one of us when I say I wished I told them to do it," she said with very obvious pain in her voice.
Seven felt a great wash of sadness flow through him, "I'm going to assume that's why you guys don't allow men in here is it?" he said and she nodded.
"Yeah no offence here but most of our experiences were at the hands of very cruel, sick and twisted men, now that's not to say there aren't women like that too hell I saw more than a few while I was there and over half the slaves were men, but the shit we saw kinda leaves a mark you know? So the girls that set this place up made it a safe place for women like us, who'd seen what we have seen and went through what we went through among other things, just one way to make it feel that little bit safer here I guess" Maria said and Seven nodded in understanding.
"None of the males here would ever harm you, in fact, I can say without a single shred of hesitation that every one of them would die to protect you and others like you, its the way they are built and one of the many many reasons we utterly adore and love them," Visa said in a surprisingly soft voice.
"I believe you, I can already tell that you are good people, different yes I mean I never imagined in my life that I would be sat in a room with two deathclaws, a NightStalker and a spider boy let alone having a full-on conversation with you but I can already see that you are good people, it kinda just surrounds you like an aura," Maria said making Visa smile proudly.
"You know my male once told me that he would show me that there were good humans in the world, humans that wouldn't try to hurt us and if shown who were really are would come to accept us, I am very happy and proud to say he has kept every word and promise he has ever made to me to the letter," she said hugging Seven tightly and gently licking his cheek making him turn and kiss her softly on the lips.
"No offence here but it seriously surprises me that you two are together in that way, I mean I'd never imagined in a million years that a deathclaw and a human could you know umm fit together like that let alone fall in love," Maria said and Visa gave her a very toothy smile.
"Oh trust me dear female claws and male humans fit together very nicely indeed, I too once thought as you did and when the feelings that I now embrace with my whole heart began to creep their way into my mind like thieves in the night they worried and somewhat disgusted me, I mean me a noble claw and him a lowly human, but the more time I spent with him the more I began to see the beautiful nobility of the man before me, his rich and powerful sense of pure honour that wouldn't allow him to either back down or shy from injustice when he saw it, do you know this man here set up a funeral pyre for a nest of murdered feral claws that we stumbled across a good long while ago, it upset him so much that he couldn't bare the thought of those innocent claws resting uneasy in any kind of after life that might be ours to claim, so he moved every single one of them together in their nest and set it alight so their bodies wouldn't be fouled by either time of carrion scavengers, most humans don't see us as anything more than at best pests to be encouraged to leave and at worst vermin to be exterminated without remorse or pity, but even feral claws just want to be left alone to live the only life they have been given, claws will very rarely go anywhere near a human settlement because they are smart enough to know humans mean trouble and usually pain, but these humans went out of their way to to find this nest out in the middle of nowhere and exterminate that whole pack for no other crime than existing, but then this beautiful male goes out of his way to try and make at least some part of it right for them, that is the soul of the beautiful male I fell in love with, then yes he also taught me that despite our size difference that we fit together so perfectly it was like we were carved out perfectly for one another," Visa said proudly.
"T-T-That's beautiful," Maria said glancing at Seven in awe as he kinda shrank in embarrassment at his wife's praise.
"I-It was just the right thing to do, no being should be left to rot in the dirt alone and forgotten, I don't claim to know what comes after this and if there is even an afterlife but if there is I wanted those children to be with their parents when they get there so they wouldn't have to be scared, I didn't really know if it did anything but it just felt more right than leaving them to rot in the sun," Seven mumbled softly.
"And that's what makes you a good person let alone a good human, you didn't even think about the fact that they were claws and not humans, you simply thought about the fact that they would be hatchlings who might be scared without their parents at their sides, that's why you are a good man and why both I and my sister are glad to follow you Seven, because the little things you do prove to us who you truly are, you brought this crazy group together and bound us together not to mention you are the reason it continues to grow with every place we go because you stand up tall and proud and set an example for others to see and follow, you show people that humans and non-humans can not only get along, work and live side by side in peace but they can also love one another without shame or judgement," Ven said giving Gregory a gentle squeeze as the young human male sat in his lap came down from his flashback induced near panic attack.
"Thanks, guys, that means a lot to me" Seven mumbled in embarrassment.
"Ven sssspeakssss the truth, when I kidnapped you I ssssaw nothing but another human who would try and hurt me if I did not get him firsssst, but when I ssssaw who you truly are I wassss sssso asssshamed that I'd nearly hurt ssssuch a wonderful person out of ignorance, he sssshowed me what my life could truly be if I ssssimply opened my mind, then he promissssed to help me find a human-like himsssself for me to love, now I have my beautiful hussssband and I know what true happinessss isssss," Riss said proudly as she embraced Runs and stroked his chin with her tail using it to turn his face so she could kiss him.
Maria looked utterly amazed by all of this and she turned to Seven, "It seems that you are a one-man example as to what people could have if they simply opened their minds a bit and looked beyond what they initially perceived" she said and Seven simply shrugged.
"I just don't like the thought of being judged for being different from everyone else, I don't see why those differences should matter to people, if anything those differences should be celebrated because they make the whole stronger, for example, Gregory over there could fix pretty much any machine you put in front of him, hell he jumped in the pilot's seat of a Vertibird and flew the fucking this despite having never touched one before, but now you pair him with Ven and not only does he have the power to fix but to move seriously heavy gear, those difference make them a stronger team and that makes the whole team stronger, everyone has the right to exist in this world as none of us had the choice to be born into it, so we should all try to get along while we are here because our lives will be richer and fuller if we do," Seven said.
Maria nodded and smiled, "I see why they all follow you now and it isn't why you think," she said and Seven cocked his head curiously at her.
"Oh?" he said.
"It's because you have both charisma and hope, a powerful combination, you genuinely believe what you say to be possible and you try to live it, it's very seductive even if for the most part it's not possible you still try and that's what counts," she said.
"It only becomes impossible if we believe it to be so, if we believe it to be possible then it will be all we have to do is find the way to make it so" he countered and she smiled at him.
"See what I mean?" she said and he chuckled catching her meaning.
"And I'm done, this should hold nicely," Malakai said suddenly holding up the coat so that he could examine it.
True to his word the Arachnakai boy had not only unstitched the entire thing but he'd replaced every single one of them with tightly woven and incredibly strong Arachnakai silk stitches that blended in seamlessly with the material.
He turned and handed the coat to Maria for her to inspect and she looked utterly amazed, "Oh wow this is incredible! This is like the work of a master tailor, I can't even tell that there was a tear here!" she exclaimed looking at the area where the damage had been and she was absolutely right, Seven couldn't even see where the tear had been as Malakai had expertly overlapped the fabric and sewn the stitches in inside the lining to hide them and given that the silk stitches were far finer than the original cotton ones while being far far stronger they blended in with the material.
"Thank you so so much, Malakai! I'm gonna tell everyone about this!" Maria exclaimed happily and before the smiling spider boy could blink Maria lunged forwards and hugged him making his large black eyes pop open wide.
Seven felt Wisp doing what felt like backflips in his head before she poured out of his ears like steam and began to orbit the pair, out the corner of his eye he saw Visa cock her head curiously at the odd behaviour of the cloud girl and he leaned in close and whispered in her ear canal, "I think someone is a little jealous that someone got to hug Malakai before her" he said and he heard Visa chuckle softly.
"Well just as long as they don't think they can get away with hugging you too my male, this is all mine, it belongs to me and is for my claws only," she said giving him a possessive squeeze with both her incredibly powerful arms and tail to prove her point.
"I don't think there's going to be any girls dumb enough to try and steal a claw girl's man" he chuckled and she growled softly.
"There had better not be, the lure of a good male can be a powerful thing and it can override sense sometimes," she said and he chuckled and grinned up at her.
"Are you saying I overrode your better judgement?' he said with a grin on his face.
Visa glanced down at him and growled deep enough that he felt it vibrate through his entire body like he was sitting on a vibrating chair.
"You overrode all my senses not just my judgement," she said and Seven chuckled.
"Good to know that this little human can make his big strong claw girl turn into a senseless mess," he said playfully making her growl.
"Don't tease me human or I'll throw you over my shoulder and drag that pretty arse of yours up those stairs and then we'll see who winds up as a senseless mess" she snarled softly, Seven fixed her with his best shit-eating grin before running two of his invisible hands over her rear end that was planted in the sofa making her gasp and her pupils widen before instantly narrowing dangerously.
"Think we both know who'd win that one sugar tail," he said playfully.
"We'll see human, we'll see," she said with a grin of her own now.
Maria thanked Malakai and the group as a whole before heading out now proudly wearing her newly repaired and Arachnakai enhanced coat just as Visa looked like she was about to make good on her promise to snatch Seven off his feet and carry him upstairs Wisp came shooting in from one of the other rooms and started doing laps around him before morphing herself into a variety of different shapes that looked like hands doing a follow me motion.
"Err I think she wants you to follow her my love," Visa said looking like she was getting dizzy from trying to keep her eyes on the rapidly circling cloud girl so Seven did along with the now slightly dizzy Visa.
What they found surprised the hell out of both of them, it appeared that they'd missed a door when inspecting the property, it was hidden at the back of a walk-in pantry just off the kitchen and as Wisp vanished through the gap Seven opened it to find a staircase leading down into the darkness.
Locating an oil lamp Seven lit it and followed Wisp down into the basement, she seemed to be emanating her own light as she floated around down there so she was rather easy to see, the basement was a little cluttered with junk that had either come from the builders or the previous owners of the house but what had got the young cloud girl all exited was sat in the centre of the room and made Seven smile.
It was a robot like the type that they had seen floating around the wasteland, it was large and green with a circular shaped head that was mounted atop what appeared to be a rocket thruster of some kind, curled up at its sides like the legs of a dead spider were three multi-segmented arms that had an assortment of tools or rather weapons mounted to them.
One held what appeared to be a plasma rifle by the faint green glow coming from it, a second had what appeared to be a buzzsaw and the third just had a claw-like three-pronged hand.
"It's a Sargent Gutsy," Visa said surprising Seven wh glanced at her curiously.
"I've heard humans refer to them by this name," she said proudly as the fact that she knew something about human tech that Seven didn't should actually surprise anyone given his lack of memories.
"Think you can lift it?" Seven asked knowing that if she couldn't he would he'd just rather avoid the painful headache if he could.
Visa made a humph noise as if she was disappointed in her human's ack of faith in her vast strength and with surprising ease, she hoisted the robot up into her arms leaving its three arms to dangle free like she was holding a dead metallic octopus.
Visa waddled her way with her awkward charge back up the stairs to deposit it in the lounge before their surprised companions, Gregory was on it before it even settled properly on the floor, "Holy shit where the hell did you find a Sargent Gutsy?" he asked pawing over it.
"Wisp found it in the basement, think you can fix it?" Seven said leaning over to peer at it.
"We have a basement?" Ven asked and Seven nodded.
"Yeah I can fix it, honestly doesn't look like there's much wrong with it other than a few corroded power connectors and this looks like one of the ones that were converted to run on hydrogen rather than regular fuel, it's third-gen which is good," Gregory said.
"Hydrogen?" Seven asked and Gregory nodded.
"During the fuel wars nations began to realise that no matter if they secured what fossil fuels were left they were going to run out, hence the huge push into both nuclear and other fuels, but it was too little too late, but one of the benefits of this is things like this, it has a hydrogen-powered drive which thanks to this nifty cracker it can pull it right out of the water itself, so we can easily power this thing with dirty water with zero issues because the rads will not affect it," Gregory said.
Even while he was talking the young man was already opening panels and setting to work, fortunately, one of the things that had survived the crash was his steadily growing tool kit and once Ven had passed it to him the young man really set to work and in only half an hour he had the Sargent Gutsy back in working condition which really made Wisp happy.
As the jump jet engine sputtered and fired uplifting the robot up off the floor where it began to hover while Wisp assumed control of it, "Ahhh that is so much better! No offence Seven as much as i am indebted to you for letting me ride around in your head there is only so much looking under a claw girl's tail a girl can take before it drives her nuts" Wisp said in the rather deep and masculine voice of the Sargent Gutsy.
"Ahh don't be shy Wisp you know you love it as much as me," Seven said playfully and Wisp chuckled to herself.
"Seven I don't think there's a guy out there who could love it as much as you do and that's not a negative for Visa I'm sure but for us non claw loving girls it can be a bother," she replied making Seven laugh.
"I'm not exactly happy about you having a close-up view under my tail either you know, that's for my beloved male's eyes only" Visa snarled huffily.
Wisp ignored and floated over to Malakai who was watching her very curiously and nervously by the way he was wringing his hands as she got closer.
"Hello Malakai its good to finally get to speak to you in person so to speak, I'm Wisp and yes I know this isn't my real body I'm just controlling it, my real body is dead and this is me now, I'm a non-corporeal human and while I do hope to have a replacement body of my own one day right now I'll take whatever I can get," she said offering him the clawed hand to shake.
The nervous-looking Arachnakai boy glanced at Seven as if seeking reassurance from him so Seven strode over and smiled at him, "Don't worry Malakai I know she seems kinda scary but she's really not, she's a really nice girl and she's the one who got me out of the airship where we were both trapped" he said.
Malakai nodded and he reached out and very timidly shook her offered hand, "Hello Wisp it's nice to meet you properly," he said in a soft voice.
"Wow you are so much prettier when seen through a pair of eyes of my own, those colours of your fur is just so much more vivid and sharp," Wisp said moving the three large visual sensors that acted like eyes and were basically just really advanced camera on stalks that sat on top of her head.
Malakai just seemed to freeze up and Seven noticed both a blush pass over his very pale skin as well as his fur fluff up all over his legs and body as a shot of embarrassment hit him, "Y-Y-You t-t-think I-I-i'm p-p-pretty!?" he exclaimed glancing between Seven and Robo Wisp as if trying to see if she was trying to wind him up.
"I'm a non-coproeal girl Malakai that doesn't mean I'm blind, I'm a girl who knows pretty when I see it and trust me I see it right now a whole lot of it and I like what I see," she said with a confidence that utterly astounded Seven and by the stunned look of the rest of the group all of them too.
"W-W-Well I-I-I err umm thank you very much, n-n-no-one's ever called me pretty before" Malakai stammered shyly with his little mandibles twittering as he spots and his cheeks blushing a neon pink colour that was rapidly becoming a deeper red.
"Look before I start making feel uncomfortable or on the spot Malakai I want you to know I don't expect anything from you I just wanted you to know how I felt, I've seen how easy it is to lose everything in this world and how fragile everyone and everything and having been around Seven as long as I have now I've realised that bottling things up gets you nothing but regrets, so I don't want to regret anything anymore, so yeah I want you to know I think you are beautiful and I am very attracted to you, you are an incredibly beautiful man and I want you to know that, so please don't feel uncomfortable by this or think I expect anything from you or that this group does either," she said.
"W-W-Wow t-t-thank you so so much Wisp, that's so incredibly nice of you," the young Archnakai man said looking like he was about to burst into tears at the kindness and directness of her words to him.
But before Wisp had a chance to respond to him or to attempt to comfort him there was a knock at the door and Seven moved to open it to find Shepherd standing there, "Ahh good you guys seem to have settled...where the hell did that Sargent Gutsy come from?" she exclaimed noticing the floating robot hovering next to Malakai.
"We found it in the basement and Gregory fixed it up and now Wisp is using it," Seven said.
"Wait, Wisp is in there?" she exclaimed looking between them.
"Hi, Shepherd," Wisp said waving her clawed hand at her.
"Holy shit she really can hi-jack tech that's gonna be useful, well we've set up the meeting so if you guys can follow me I'll take you there now, damn I wish we'd seen the robot first we could have used a Sargent Gutsy," she said.
"Well if we find her an upgrade I'm sure Wisp would be more than happy to give it up to you and hell I'm sure Gregory would even upgrade it for you, the boy is an absolute genius with anything made of metal, he fixed that thing in half an hour," Seven said.
Shepherd looked thoughtful and then she nodded and smiled, "Yeah that would cool, thanks alright come on guys let's go," she said and with that, the group left the house and set off into the town.