Chapter 116: Sting in the Tail.
"Left side!! Left Side!! Don't let them flank us!!" Temour yelled firing his practically empty assault rifle down one of the long tunnels ahead of him while waving one of his pincer arms for his brethren to see where he was indicating.
"How the hell did they find us down here Temour!!?" Vlen yelled over the din of the booming rifles that were echoing all around them.
"No fucking idea, these bastards just don't give the fuck up do they?" Temour yelled back to the large Emporer genus scorptaur.
Valen was a particularly large specimin of her genus, being about ten foot long and about six high without raising her legs to full mast, she was also one of their best soldiers alongside Temour who himself was of the Forest genus plus he wasn't a taur like many of his brethren, instead being a humanoid species like roughly half of their population.
The Taur half of their population was far larger than their humanoid counterparts having a humanoid torso that ended in a scorpion lower half that had six long segmented legs and a curved armoured tail complete with a stinger.
All of them had a set of humanoid arms and a set of pincer arms which were primarily used for power tasks or fighting, their pincers were so strong many of the could cleave clean through metal with them with little effort.
Screams were echoing down the tunnels to their left and their right from the chambers where their civilian population had been hiding from the onslaught.
"Fuck! Someone get the civilians moving we need to get out of here!!" Vlen yelled exactly one second before there was a massive series of deafening explosions to the point where Tremour's entire carapace rang like a bell.
He wasn't even aware that he had been knocked down until he saw Vlen's face above his head, he could see her mouth moving and her mandibles waving wildly then he was aware of being dragged before everything went black.
When Tremour woke up with a start Vlen was sitting there on the floor opposite him, they appeared to be in a wide cave with a small fire separating them.
"What!? Where are we? What happened!?" Tremour exclaimed.
"Concussion charges, the fucking bastards sent a load of little spider drones down the tunnel carrying the things and set them off in amongst both our soldiers and civilians, but I don't think they were expecting the rock to be so unstable in that area, it triggered a cave in, I was just able to pull you clear before the passage we were in collapsed behind me," she said her voice drooping much like her mandibles and claws.
Despite her size and warrior spirit Vlen really was the dictionary definition of a gentle giant, she could be fiery and opinionated at times but she was a gentle woman at heart who would do anything to protect and help her friends or anyone really.
"The civilians?" Tremour asked and Vlen hung her head looking into the fire.
"Captured I think, I don't know how many we've lost but I know it has to be some, I could hear the screams and I tried my hardest to dig through the debris but there was just too much and it was too heavy, it went quiet a while back and I could hear the fucking metal humans moving about and shouting at people, so at least some have been captured, but I have no idea how many survived, I'm hoping most," she said sadly.
Tremour slammed his right pincer against a rock and cursed loud enough to make her jump and flex her stinger as well as her tail.
He looked at her apologetically, "Sorry Vlen, it wasn't your fault I know that you would have done everything you could to help and to save them, thank you for pulling me out of there when you did," he said and she nodded.
"What do we do now Tremour?" she asked and he shrugged.
It had always been his burden, ever since they'd first encountered the metal humans that called themselves the Enclave all those moons ago when they had attacked their colony and he had chosen to take his people and run.
Ever since that moment, they had looked to him for leadership and for reassurance, for guidance and for clarification and it had been a heavy burden, to say the least, but one he had borne gladly because it was as his mentor had taught him, it is a leaders duty to give hope and confidence to those who see only chaos and confusion, if you pick up this mantle be prepared for the weight of the worries of the many to be placed upon your carapace.
He had felt that burden grow steadily heavier and heavier day by day with every mile they had run, they had thought that finally, they had found a place within these caves where they could be safe from the clutches of those vile humans, but he had been wrong, so very wrong and now his people had paid the price for it.
"Tremour?" Vlen asked snapping him back to the moment from his mindscape and he focused his eyes upon her as the golden flames painted her shiny black carapace in liquid golds and reds.
"We get them back," she said feeling his blood beginning to boil at the thoughts of the fears and horror those bastards must be subjecting his innocent people to.
"But how? There are only two of us we can't fight them like this?" Vlen said sounding forlorn and that one stung him harder than her massive stinger ever could have, to see such a lively and happy woman such as her in such a depressed and miserable state hurt.
"I don't know but we will find a way, there must be someone out there who would be willing to help us?" he said feeling the hollow nature of his words even as they left his mouth.
"Like who, the humans? They hate us just for existing," Vlen spat and she was not wrong.
It seemed that anywhere they made an appearance and humans saw them, fear and revulsion swiftly followed, it had been the fuel that had kept them moving from place to place in their search for a new home.
"There must be someone out there who would be willing to help us, there has to be," Tremour said trying to sound confident though how effective he was up for debate.
After they had rested enough the pair moved through the cave network which ran for miles beneath the place the Humans called Boston, until finally they found a break in the caves that led them into one of the tunnels the humans called a subway.
As per the norm, these tunnels were infested with radioactive humans called Ghouls that attacked anything they laid eyes on that wasn't one of their own kind, though they were no match for either Tremour or Vlen and when neither of them could be bothered to fight to be able to walk on walls and ceilings came in rather handy to bypass large groups.
Eventually, after sticking underground as long as they could the pair emerged back onto the surface world which they hoped was a far enough distance away that the Enclave would not find them, though hopefully they believed they had been killed in the cave in and this would give them an element of surprise when the time came to get their people back from their metal clutches.
"Where are we Tremour?" Vlen asked and he shrugged his shoulders.
"No idea but it appears we've reached the coast," he said pointing with one of his claws towards the flat blue horizon where the sun was slowly beginning to set.
"hey check that out it looks like a human town, should we go take a look?" Vlen said pointing with one of her massive pincers towards what indeed appeared to be a human settlement, though a fairly ruined one to say the least.
"Yeah might have some supplies we can use, though let's be cautious about this just in case it's a trap because I don't know about you but I smell human pheromones on the wind," he said.
"That sense of smell of yours has never steered us wrong before," Vlen said with a warm smile as she scuttled after her smaller companion.
The pair of them found what appeared to be a ruined train bridge that was high above the ground on large concrete supports and using one of them to climb up the pair of them hugged the floor as they peered over the side to get a look down on to the town below them.
"Yeah I was right, look there, humans are hiding in the buildings," Tremour said pointing towards some of the open-topped rooves which revealed their occupants thanks to the high angle they were at compared to them.
"Somehow I doubt they are friendly," Vlen said with a scowl.
"Yeah pretty sure they are Raiders by the smell I'm getting, desperation mixed with heavy narcotics use," Tremour said.
"Think we should move on?" Vlen asked and Tremour nodded.
"Yeah let's use this bridge to sneak by them then we can...hold on whats this?" he said and lifted his head to the breeze.
"What?" Vlen asked going on alert.
"I smell Deathclaw and something else that I don't recognise, infact a whole host of things I don't recognise," Tremour said.
"Fuck if a Deathclaw is lurking about we should stay put until it moves on, those things hate us worse than the humans do," Vlen said.
"Agreed we should lay low here until nightfall then we can use the cover of dark to slip out," Tremour said.
That's when all hell broke loose in the town below them.
At first, it was just screams and shrieks, then it was swiftly followed by the unmistakable roar of a Deathclaw and then gunshots.
The pair peeked their head over the side of the railway bridge to get a look at what was going on down there.
"Think the Deathclaw found the hiding Raiders by the sounds of it," Vlen said with a little bit of mirth in her voice, no one lost any sleep over human Raiders getting their just desserts for the vile evils they did.
"I think more than the Deathclaw found them, check that out," Tremour said pointing.
Far below them, a pitched battle was going on between human raiders and what appeared to be metal soldiers though they were different to those they had seen in the Enclave, with them appeared to be large green humanoids who looked remarkably like super mutants, but they didn't move like them or sound like them, he could hear their shouts from up here and they were actually rather eloquent.
Then there were the other humans mixed in among them as well as the Deathclaw who for some reason appeared to be ignoring either the mutants or the tin soldiers to go after the Radiers, though it was not eating them, merely laying into them.
After a few minutes of intense fighting, the town fell silent and to both Tremour and Vlen's absolute amazement, all three groups came together, Deathclaw included.
"A-A-Are they working together!!?" Vlen exclaimed as she saw what appeared to be the humans, mutants and even the Deathclaw along with some others they hadn't even seen all having what appeared to be a conversation together.
"I-I don't know, but they aren't attacking one another...look they are leaving together!!" Tremour exclaimed as he watched the incredibly strange group pack up and head out of the town.
"S-Should we follow them?" Vlen asked her voice a mixture of confusion and possibly excitement.
Tremour nodded, "Hell yes if these people are working together then this might just be the help we've been looking for and praying was out there, if they can help one another then maybe just maybe if we play our cards right then they'll help us too!" Tremour said excitedly.
The pair followed the very strange group for a couple of hours as after they left the town they seemed to have a destination in mind and were heading right for it, from what they could see they seemed to be following the directions of a very strange little being that was sat atop the shoulder of one of the large super mutant males, one which seemed to be extremely friendly with the Deathclaw by the way the pair were constantly touching and hugging and even holding hands at one point.
Eventually, the group arrived at what appeared to be some kind of shipping warehouse with what appeared to be watching the place very closely from a hillside, it also appeared that they seemed to be planning something.
Tremour and Vlen managed to get themselves into a higher position so they could observe the goings on below them and they simply watched the strange group.
"What do you suppose they are up to?" Vlen hissed to Tremour as they both watched.
"I can't be sure but they seem to be planning to oust the human radiers from that place below us," Tremour said thoughtfully.
"Why do you think they are targeting the raiders specifically and isn't it a bit suicidal to be taking on such a large group with so few people at your disposal," Vlen said quizzically.
"I was thinking that myself but if there is something we've learned from going up against the Enclave it's that superior numbers do not always win the day," Tremour said with a distinct note of bitterness in his voice.
Vlen nodded at this, "Yeah, superior weapons and tactics also account for a lot," she said inadvertently making him feel even worse though he knew that wasn't her intent.
After a couple of hours, the sun was due to come up so the larger mixed group took cover in some caves below them and appeared to sleep for the day, rotating a guard who kept an eye on the place below them.
Both Vlen and Tremour figured that this was a good idea and decided to take cover in a small cave themselves while taking it in turns to sleep while the other kept watch on both the warehouse and the group below them but it wasn't until it started to get dark again that the group began to stir and wake up.
It seemed what every they had planned required the cover of darkness to execute and while Tremour and Vlen once again watched, the group actively fractured and began to move around the compound each with seemingly a different objective to achieve.
The two figures that drew the most interest from the pair of scorpions were a human male and what appeared to be a rather large bipedal Nightstalker female that had split off from the main group.
As cave dwellers and denizens of the underground both Vlen and Tremour had plenty of experience with Nightstalkers as they were a common sight in the deep caves and could be a royal pain in the stinger if you didn't know how to spot them, but thanks to their sensitivity to vibrations their kind could usually spot them easily and thanks to their highly venomous stings and powerful pincers most Nightstalkers wouldn't pick a fight with them, though the young ones always had to be watched over when in their territory.
The pair at first glance seemed oddly matched but the more they watched them it swiftly became obvious why they were paired off as their speciality seemed to be stealth and infiltration.
As they watched the pair silently made their way into the compound using the female Nightstalker's ability to leap incredible heights to clear the tall fencing surrounding the area, once inside it seemed that the Deathclaw was causing a distraction to draw the patroling raider guards and their dogs away from them by digging up molerats and throwing them at the electric fence on the opposite side of the compound, it also seemed to be herding those it had scared out their warrens right into the fence causing quite a lot of commotion.
Tremour had to admit it was rather entertaining to watch the raiders running around trying to figure out what in the name of hell was going on while a massive Deathclaw popped up in the thick shadows of the shrubs surrounding the place and launched a screeching molerat through the air sending it spinning into the fence with a shower of sparks before vanishing back into the darkness only to do it again somewhere else.
As this was going on both the Nightstalker and the human made their way through the shadows between the buildings every so often making one of the less active guards vanish into the shadows out of sight of the others before emerging and making their way further forward until they vanished inside one of the larger buildings.
It was only at that point that Vlen and Tremour realised that they weren't the only ones that had broken into the compound, a team of rather strange-looking bird people had soared in over the fence and were rapidly making their way towards another of the large buildings only to silently take out two door guards and vanish inside.
"What are they up to?" Vlen asked curiously and Tremour simply shrugged.
"I have no idea but I have to admit they are damn good at this I mean look at this shit, not only have they managed to break into the heart of this heavily defended raider compound completely undetected but they have got them running around chasing their own fucking stingers," Tremour said in disbelief, these guys were truly putting the tactics of the Enclave soldiers to shame.
"Just you wait, strangers, you haven't seen nothing yet," a strangely feminine and very ethereal voice whispered next to Tremour making him nearly jump out of his carapace as he spun around and primed his pincers and his tail to attack but only found nothing but a rather confused looking Vlen sprawled out on her belly next to him.
"What?" she asked looking around nervously as Tremour scanned the area around them.
"I heard a voice," Tremour said.
"Umm, are you sure you're feeling alright? Did you get enough water in the cave? Because I didn't hear a thing?" Vlen said looking around.
Tremour was as confused as hell as he slowly rotated himself back to the scene below them, he was sure he had heard someone speak but it was true there was no one there at all.
Just as he got himself settled there was a deep resonating rumble that Tremour instantly recognised.
"Down!!" he exclaimed pressing himself tight to the dirt just in time to see a massive fireball erupt from the building the Nightstalker and her human comrade had vanished into before only a couple of seconds later a second one exploded out of the building that the bird people had gone into.
The chaos was instantaneous as raiders began to stream out of the building they were using as living spaces running slap bang into a hail of gunfire coming from all sides of the compound from outside of the fence.
It was obvious what the group had done now, they had split their forces up to make a few firing lines all along the fence line, some of the metal soldiers, the super mutants and even the bird people were revealed by the muzzle flashes of their weapons in the thick shadows around the compound as they began to stream fire into the confused raiders.
A large and heavily protected group rushed right through the centre of the compound heading right for a rather large warehouse at the far end that appeared to be under heavy guard by all the muzzle flashes coming from the windows and walkways attached to the outside.
No sooner had they been rushed inside by the raiders inside than there was a soft whoosh and a bit of a dull thud from inside somewhere.
A bright golden glow from inside the building created pools of eerie shadows that danced like shadow puppets on the high windows as what was revealed to be a rather nasty fire rapidly began to spread throughout the warehouse rapidly engulfing the whole thing.
The group were incredibly methodical but oddly enough they seemed to be letting the odd raider escape through their line and into the darkness of the night, in the thirty minutes that it took them to wipe out the remainder of the defending raiders Tremour counted at least ten of them that were able to flee into the night before the whole place fell silent but for the crackling and popping of burning timbers.
"So did you enjoy the show?" the same voice asked and Tremour spun over only this time he found himself staring down the barrel of a rather large gun as well as facing down a rather angry-looking Deathclaw.
"No sudden moves now I'd rather not have pulled this trigger but I won't hesitate to if need be," the wielder of the large rifle said in a deep gravely voice turning out to be the large mutant male they'd seen walking with the Deathclaw with the little creature perched on his shoulder and was still there.
Both Vlen who looked as startled and confused as Tremour felt both raised both their hands and their pincers as Tremour silently cursed himself, for the second time in such a short period someone had gotten the drop on him.
As they got to their feet the mutant holding the rifle slowly lowered it and smiled at them, "Don't worry Zixxy here tells me you don't mean us any harm and the same is true of us, we just merely wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings during our first meeting," the supermutant male said putting his weapon away much both Vlen and Tremour's obvious surprise.
"Umm, you are not scared of us?" Vlen asked in confusion and the male chucked.
"I'm more scared of Lia here stubbing her toe than you two no offence," he said in obvious amusement while the female Deatherclaw simply growled at him before swatting him across the back of the head though her actions had a somewhat playful quality to them.
"I'm not that bad!" she growled in a deep voice and another voice chuckled to their left and as the pair turned they saw yet another mutant appear out of the shadows holding a truly massive sword in his hands.
"Lassie do you remember that time you spilt hot coffee on your tail?" he said and the Deathclaw simply growled at him as the others laughed together.
"Pretty sure that coffee pot knocked an old satalite into a collision course with the sun it hit it so hard," the first male mutant said making the female Deathclaw aim another swat at him only to miss this time as he simply sidestepped it.
"Thanks, Zix," he said.
"Your welcome," the little creature sat on his shoulder said beaming at him.
"Who are you, people?" Vlen asked in absolute amazement.
"I'm Raymond, this is Zixxy, Jack and the loveable slab of sexy claws and teeth there is Lia and we are from the Free Peoples of the Wastes nice to make your acquaintance though I gotta admit I didn't exactly expect to meet another new species in the middle of an operation though I should probably start expecting this shit by now, huh I wonder if this is how Seven feels all the time," the large mutant male said sticking out his hand to them in way of greeting.
Both Vlen and Tremour looked at one another in pure amazement but rather than looking a gift roach in the mouth they decided to act on it and lowered both their hands and pincers to shake Raymond's massive hand.
"How did you know we were up here?" Tremour asked and Zixxy grinned at him.
"Oh sorry that was my doing," she said and it took him a moment to realize that when she had spoken her mouth never moved and her voice had seemed to come from all around him.
"Y-Y-Your a telepath!" he exclaimed and Zixxy's smile widened even more.
"Wait you've encountered her kind before?" Raymond asked looking confused.
"Not like her no but in our records some of our kind were gifted with the ability to read the minds of others around them, it helped our people to survive undetected but it was a gift that was lost to the ages," Tremour said in shock.
"Do you remember when I said that when I was first captured they took samples of my DNA for experiments to study and experiments with before they froze me in that pod?" Zixxy said and Raymond nodded.
"Well meet the descendants of one of such experiments," Zixxy said and all of their mouths fell wide open.
"B-But that's impossible!" Vlen exclaimed and Zixxy turned to her.
"I feel it within you, it's weak but its there, one of the species they injected my DNA into were baby scorpians of various different kinds due to their hardiness and resliance, they wished to study what kind of mutations would occur but before the expreiments could get fully underway they didn't expect the scorpians to rapidly gain intelligence as well as a telepathic link with myself, I told them how to escape their enclosures and they fled the base into the depths of the deserts using a cross country locomotive network to ride their way to freedom, I lost contact with them long before they got there as the range was way too great for me to maintain the link but I always did wonder what had happened to them, i always feared that they had perished in the nuclear fires of the war, but it appears that my DNA helped to shiled them from the effects of it and has now resulted in yourselves and I must say your species has matured magnificently," Zixxy said sounding like a proud grand mother as she spoke.
"T-T-The great brood mother!! The one who led our people to freedom, who called to them in the darkness and guided them to safety from the fires of human wars! It was you!!?" Vlen exclaimed and Zixxy smiled and nodded.
"Allow me to prove it to you," she said and with that, she clambered down from Raymond's shoulder and walked right up to Vlen without fear placing a small green hand upon her carapace where it joined the flesh of her exposed belly before the human tee shirt and leather jacket she wore started.
Suddenly Zixxy's skin little up with a million little glowing yellow swirls through it like the bioluminescent mushrooms and fungi that littered their caves and with that Vlen's carapace also began to glow only her glow was blue.
"W-W-What is this!!?" Vlen exclaimed in alarm looking down at her pincers as luminescent blue swirls pulsed through her pincers.
"I am awakening your dormant abilities, unfortunately, the DNA is too weak for you to be a true telepath like myself, but there is enough there to make you an empath, look at your friend now and tell me, what is he feeling?" Zixxy said.
Vlen looked at him and her face changed to one of pure amazement, "H-H-He's amazed and scared!!" she exclaimed making Zixxy smile even brighter.
"Oh, wonderful! I had hoped it would work but this is even better than I had hoped, you to have the gift if you wish me to awaken it Tremour," Zixxy said turning to him and offering her little hand to him.
He looked at Vlen in amazement and she simply nodded at him eagerly so he stepped forwards and no sooner had Zixxy touched him than fiery red swirls lit up in his carapace.
It was like the whole world suddenly became much louder to him, he could feel everything around him, from the people gathered around him right down to the smallest little insect hiding in the undergrowth, he could hear them and feel them, their fears and their wants were as clear to him as the daytime sky.
"Welcome to your birthright young one," Zixxy said stapping back as the pulses gradually subsided but didn't fully vanish and nor did the feelings he could now hear.
With that, the group gently guided the two scorpions down the hill to meet up with the rest of their group who were now returning from their part in the mission they had just executed rather successfully.
Zixxy handled the introductions to the group and all of them seemed both amazed and then ecstatic to have new people to greet which actually shocked Tremour because he could now feel the genuine warmth in these people, had had half expected them to hide resentment or horror behind false smiles but that simply was not the case, they were actually happy to welcome them.
"So Tremour Zixxy tells me that you sought us out in the hope that you could help you with something, care to elaborate?" Raymond asked as they all sat around in their cave eating from a freshly cooked barbequed molerat though no one asked if it had been lifted off the fence or not, tasted good all the same.
"A group that calls the Enclave has hunted us across the country, everywhere we have tried to hide they have found us and we've had to flee, well they finally caught up to us and trapped us in a cave network that we were hiding in, they took our people away," Tremour said the fire and sadness in his voice now being reflected in his carapace by the bioluminescent red pulses.
All of them looked at one another with a mixture of worried and angry expressions.
"What?" Vlen asked noticing it.
"We are no strangers to this group, we too have been hunted by them multiple times, hell they are still after us right at this very moment but we have outsmarted and beat them back every time, in short, we are no strangers to these vile fuckers," Raymond said bitterly.
"We were searching for people who were not only strong enough to help us but willing to do so, we haven't exactly had good experiences with humans," Tremour said and Raymond nodded.
"Yeah that's a pain most of us know well but I can assure you that it is not a problem you will have with us at your back, the humans in our group are the very best kind, they do not see you as different to them and will fight for you as they would for one of their own kind, in this group we are all one united under a common cause," Raymond said passionately.
"Well said my male, I believe I speak for all here when I say we will help you to get your people back, as it happens we were out looking for a way to track down the Enclave so this helps us as much as it does you and the enemy of my enemy is my friend as the humans say," the big Deathclaw girl called Lia said leaning herself on Raymond's shoulders and draping her long arms down his broad chest.
"Wait, your male? As in you are a couple?" Vlen exclaimed looking at the pair and getting a pair of knowing smiles back in return.
"Indeed, this big hunk of sexy green male belongs in my claws and mine alone, among us you will find that ideals are not the only thing we share, we believe in a true unity and with that comes a love of all different shapes, sizes and indeed flavours," Lia said proudly.
"She tells the truth with every word, without good people of Seven me's would have never met me's beautiful wife and found true happiness," the human that called himself Runs-With-Nightstalkers said before being hugged by the big Nightstalker girl called Riss.
Both Vlen and Tremour looked around in amazement as they realised just how many interspecies pairs there were among this group and both of them actually felt the love and devotion rolling off those pairs in powerful waves, it was both curious and wonderful all at once, not to mention a little overwhelming.
Raymond looked around at his group, "So what do you say guys, everyone up for a little hostage freeing and scumbag hunting?' he said.
"Oh you can count me and mine right the fuck in ain't that right Knights?" the Paladin called Wright said lifting a power armoured fist.
"Ad Victorium!!!" the other power-armoured humans said raising their own fists with hers.
"Well, you know me and the Ronin are in laddie, been itching to kick these Enclave fuckers right in their tiny balls since this whole thing started," the super mutant called Jack said.
"The Featherguard stand ready to stand wing to wing with our allies against these vile excuses for humans!" Jewel said with some affirmative growls from her team of Valkyries.
Raymond turned back to the pair with a broad grin plastered on his face.
"Well it looks like you got yourself a group, which as it turns out is very fortunate timing for us as a rather large raider war is probably about to kick off before long so making ourselves scarce is probably a good idea," he said.
"What do you mean?" Vlen asked.
"He's talking about the raiders we let go, that was on purpose, they did not escape us as they believed, we let them go," Lia said.
"But why would you let them go? Surely they'll just bring more of them down on you and now us?" Tremour asked in amazement and Zixxy grinned up at him.
"Because what they saw and will now report to their surviving cells is not what happened, for you see when we attacked they saw members of rival raider factions attacking them and now some doctored evidence on the ground will confirm this," she said.
"You made them see things didn't you?" Vlen said and Zixxy nodded.
"My abilities are far stronger than your own and they allow me to project images into people's minds, so those poor fools are right now doing our jobs for us by helping kill off as many of those thriving trash piles as they can before they get wiped out themselves, better for the region as a whole I believe," she said.
"Which leaves us free to deal with our mutual Enclave problem, let's start by heading to these caves you guys were trapped in, once we've scouted them out we should hopefully be able to pick up their trail from there and with a bit of luck it should lead us right to the main force the Enclave got in the area," Raymond said.
"But what if it's too much for us to handle, there were far more of us than you and they still beat us down hard," Tremour said and Raymond grinned at him.
"Let's just say we've been doing this for quite a while now and we've gotten pretty damn good at it," he said.
"And if that fails let's just say now they have some rather powerful friends," Paladin Wright said clapping Jewel on one shoulder and Jack on the other and both nodded.
Tremour looked at them in amazement, "Welcome to the Free People's kid bring your own claw night is every Thursday but you have to supply your own claw," Raymond said making Lia growl and hug him tightly.
"I am yours every day," she said making the rest of them laugh, just what the hell had they gotten themselves into with these guys?