Chapter 151:Let the Feathers Fly.
"Seriously? Now I look like I'm permanently fucking amazed!" Fuller grumbled as he glanced in the mirror on the desk for like the hundredth time since Yumi had surprised him by singing off his eyebrows in revenge for coming up with stupid callsign names for both her and Latisha.
"Well, you poked the bear and got scrammed what did you expect?' Malakai said with a chuckle as he watched the grumpy human looking at his complexion in the mirror.
"I didn't expect her to burn my fucking hair off, all I did was make up a stupid name, I didn't expect to get burned for it," Fuller grumbled.
"Well you play with fire and all that, plus it could have been a lot worse, all she did was remove the hair she didn't burn the skin at all, quite a remarkable display of control over those powers of hers I must say," Wisp said with a chuckle.
"You will keep prodding bears with sticks my love, it was only a matter of time before one took your stick and snapped it," Glory said with a grin.
"I'd get more sympathy with a pack of fucking feral ghouls than you lot I swear to god," Fuller said sulking.
"We finally got the word on what happened with the Minutemen," Desdemona said suddenly appearing in the control room and the group turned to look at her.
"Oh? What's going on?" Wisp said referring to a check call from the Minutemen HQ alerting them to an unfolding situation that they may require some assistance with.
"Looks like the Minutemen have got themselves some kind of rouge assassin hunting their field officers, could be raiders but given the level of sophistication in pulling these hits off I'm inclined to go with either the Enclave or the institute being behind this, it too clinical and clean for raiders," Desdemona said laying out a file on the desk that showed the two Minutemen officers that had been killed.
"Think it's retaliation for us teaming up with them?" Wisp asked her voice turning grave and Desdemona shrugged.
"Don't know but it's as likely a theory as any right now, they tell me they've dispatched the Cossacks and their Valkyrie team to investigate and track down the perpetrator, they also tell me that they have a new addition to the Cossacks, one that our friend here might be interested in learning about," Desdemona said gesturing to Malakai who turned on his eight feet to look at her.
"Me?" he said curiously and she nodded.
"Apparently they have gotten their hands on another Archnakai, a really big one called Ebony, apparently she's some kind of Tarantula genus but she's supposed to be a pretty big girl either way, they found her in that underground storage facility they were tracking down," Desdemona said and Malakai's eight eyes went even wider than normal.
"Another Archnakai out here!?" he exclaimed and she nodded.
He turned to look at Wisp who simply smiled at him.
"Looks like more of your kind have decided to take the plunge of leaving home and venturing out into the great unknown," she said stroking his yellow leg gently.
"I hope I get to meet her, it will be good to learn what's been happening back home while I've been gone," Malakai said eagerly with a distinct note of excitement in his voice.
"Well aside from that some of our field agents have finally reported in and it also looks like we've got a solid lead on some Institute activity at last, this could be the break we've been looking for as to learning what these fuckers have been up to," Desdemona said.
"Shall we put a team together?" Wisp asked and Desdemona nodded.
"I was thinking two of your people and two of mine," she said and Wisp nodded.
"Sounds good given how restless both Yumi and Latisha have been lately I think they'd be two good candidates, who have you got?" Wisp said.
"I was thinking two of my best heavies aside from Glory, Deadeye and Snow, the pair of them could use the workout as I don't want my people getting stale hanging around here all the time you know?' Desdemona said signaling to Tom to call all of them up to control.
Once they arrived the four of them took seats as both Des and Wisp outlined the operation.
"Alright people listen up we've got a hit on what looks to be institute Courser activity and quite a bit of it, I highly doubt that if there are this many Coursers running about it means nothing, something is up and something big, we need you to get in and find out what it is and what's going on, but more than that we believe we finally have a lead on an Institute surface base and I cannot tell you how important that it is, we've been searching for one of these things since the Railroad was set up, we believe that these are HUBs used to ferry captured synths back into the Institute if we can break into this place and learn its secrets then we finally might be able to find a fucking way into the institute itself, Tom?" Desdemona said looking up and Tom nodded before holding up a small boxy device with a load of wires hanging out of it and a small satalite dish folded down on the top.
"This is the RAT or Remote Access Terminal, it's going to allow you to break into their network and more importantly it will start sending all of their juicy data directly to me, where like an old hermit with less hair on his head than teeth and that's saying something I'm going to frantically sift through it until I find those shiny gold nuggets like access codes or map data," he said.
"Shouldn't we have a bigger team for this?' Yumi asked looking at the four of them and Wisp shook her head.
"We need to keep this as low-key as possible, the four of you have more than enough firepower between you should things go south, especially with you on the team Yumi," Wisp said.
Latisha put her large arm around Yumi's slender shoulders and she looked up at the large Avian woman.
"Don't you worry sweet thing, I got your back, ain't no-one gonna hurt you while I'm here," she said playfully.
Yumi chuckled and then flickered a flame into existence in her hand.
"I think they need to be more worried about me," she said and Latisha grinned all over her beak.
"That's the spirit," she said squeezing her young shoulder.
Snow and Deadeye were a male and female heavy and it wasn't hard to see where they got their codenames from, Snow had bright white hair that shone under the lights of the vault which was even more obvious as he wore a scarf which covered up most of his face though Yumi still guessed him to be in his early thirties and Deadeye was carrying the meanest looking sniper rifle that Yumi had ever seen.
"Alright guys I'm putting Snow in charge of this mission as he's the most senior and most experienced field operative, draw gear and rations for an extended stay in the field, good luck out there guys and remember to stay on comms," Wisp said.
As the team headed out towards the stores and quartermaster Ymui decided to try and get to know the two newcomers.
"Hey I'm Yumi, nice to meet you," she said offering her hand to Snow first.
He looked at it curiously and then after a moment's hesitation he took it and shook it without saying a word which surprised Yumi and Latisha by the way she lifted a thick feathery eyebrow.
"Oh don't mind him, he's a man of very few words but trust me when I say there is no one you would want watching your back more out there, the guy is as silent as a shadow but as lethal as a Deathclaw with a hangover, people call me Deadeye by the way," Deadeye said offering her hand to the pair of them.
"I speak only when I have something to say, otherwise it is a waste of breath and time," Snow said with a tone that mirrored his name, it was as cold as snow.
"Fair enough care to share the details of what we know about this suspected Institute base then?" Yumi said and Snow shot her a glance realising swiftly that she had robbed him of his mysterious stoisim by invoking his own rules against him.
Deadeye seemed to notice this as well and grinned flicking up her eye patch to put a drop of something into her right eye and it was only then that Yumi realised that her right eye was blood red.
Deadeye noticed her looking and grinned at her as she flipped the patch back down.
"My codename didn't come from my shooting if that's what your thinking, I got hit in the eye with some kind of chemical during a mission, which made my eye incredibly sensitive to pretty much all forms of light but gave me perfect night vision in it, they call me Deadeye because the eye looks fucking dead, plus I can shoot the balls off a bloatfly at a thousand yards so I suppose my shooting does have a little something to do with it," she said.
"The mission is a simple one, we have detected a lot of Courser activity near an old canning factory down by the Boston docks, normally not even Raiders go near this place due to the high concentration of Mirelurks in the area and the high likelihood of a queen, it is dangerous enough that not even super mutants go there," Snow said coldly.
"Oh great and yet they think the four of us can manage it?" Yumi said sarcastically.
"A smaller team gives us a greater chance of passing by undetected by either the Coursers or the local wildlife, a bigger team would only draw attention," Snow said.
"And besides with the firepower we hear you packing in that body of yours we should be good on the toasting mirelurks or Courser if need be department, so how do these things work anyhow?" Deadeye asked looking at Yumi's hands uncomfortably closely.
Latishsa snapped her beak at Deadeye making her jump back in alarm and look up at the big Avian woman.
"Do not touch what you are not invited to," she said and Deadeye held up her hands defensibly.
"Whoa there big girl I wasn't gonna start grabbing at her I swear, fuck pulling shit like that around these parts with all the non-humans wandering around is not a smart idea, I very nearly stroked Malakai's leg the other day when I was lost in thought, I was just kinda thinking that his fur looks really soft and fluffy and before I knew what I was doing I was kinda just reaching out to touch him when this deep gravey voice goes, I'd keep that hand to yourself if you don't like jealous and angry cloud girls in your head making you masturbate with the spikest cactus she can find out in the desert' I turn around to see that big Calw boy Ven just standing behind me leaning over me, like how in the name of fuck does someone that big move that fucking quiet, well anyway I apologised and told him what I'm telling you now, I don't mean no harm its just when I get curious I have a nasty habit of touching when I shouldn't I don't mean to I swear I don't," she said hurridly.
Latisha drew herself up and Yumi placed a hand on the big Condor's hip causing her to glance down at her.
"it's fine honestly, Latisha here is just very protective of me as I am of her too by the way so don't think about touching her tailfeathers unless you like third-degree burns on your fingertips, but it works like blinking," Yumi said.
"Huh, you control it with your eye?" Deadeye asked in confusion.
"No it is both an involuntary and voluntary motion, I can either do it by reflex or by cognitive decision, much like you do with blinking or breathing, or any muscle movement really, just like you would do with either blinking or breathing, it either happens on its own or you take control and make it happen," Yumi said.
"Huh, that's pretty cool, I keep hearing about you number people among the Free Peoples, like Seven or Wisp or well you know, you, but you are the first one I've gotten to actually meet and have a conversation with and you are definitely not what I expected a super-powered human to be," Deadeye said as they all collected their preprepared gear from the quartermaster before turning and heading for the Vault door.
"Oh, better or worse?" Yumi asked curiously.
"Better much better, I dunno, when I found out about you guys at first I didn't believe it, I mean sure we have mutants and talking Deathclaws and all sorts of other things but humans that could do the things that you guys were supposed to be able to do just blew my mind a little, then I got to thinking and I was like I bet they are a bunch of self-important assholes who think they are better than the rest of us, but everyone was like no trust us this Seven guy and Wisp are really cool, they really care about people but while I heard about you I didn't know much about you and now I meet you and you are just like what everyone said you guys were, down to earth and normal people just like us," Deadeye said with a smile.
"This is what I thought too, when I first heard about superpowered humans that could do the things that you lot can I was kinda scared by the prospect and what it meant for me and my people but now here I am completely in love with one of them," Latisha said giving Yumi's shoulder a squeeze and Deadeye glanced up at the big Condor girl.
"Oh so you guys are a thing huh?' she said with a surprised but happy-sounding note to her voice.
"Yup, this big bundle of claws and feathers is all mine now," Yumi said hugging Latisha's large muscled arm to her body.
"That's awesome! You know it's been kinda eye opening seeing all the different couples and relationships that the Free Peoples introduced us to, at first I was like a human banging a Deathclaw! Nah are you for fucking real!? Then I met Gregory and Ven and had my fucking mind blown, it's like a fucking adventure with you guys around you never know what's coming next!' Deadeye said falling into step behind Snow as the silent Asian man led the way out into the tunnels.
The group emerged into the sunlight and all of them squinted as they looked around to get their bearings.
"You sound like you're really starting to enjoy having us Free Peoples lot around," Yumi said as Snow took their bearing from his map and then started to lead the way toward their destination.
"Well yeah, I mean before you lot came along I'd have never in a million years ever thought about having a conversation with a Deathclaw, or a giant half-spider dude, or a Nightstalker or any of these what I once thought were just creatures but now realise are just as much people as I am, now I find myself making friends with these guys and loving every second of it, there just so much more to see and learn now, it feel like I dunno, like the world got bigger and smaller at the same time," Deadeye said trying hard to put her thoughts and feeling son the matter into words.
"You have new horizons and wish to explore them, this is admirable," Snow said in his cold yet matter-of-fact voice from ahead of them.
"It is a thought that I can appreciate and echo myself," Latisha said and both Yumi and Deadeye glanced up at her while Snow never took his eyes off the road ahead of them.
"Really?" Deadeye asked and Latisha nodded.
"The war between my people and the Brotherhood made me truly hate humans, I thought that all of you were like them, that you wanted nothing more than to wipe out everyone and everything that didn't look like you or aspire to your ideals of what life should be, but then the Free Peoples came to my city and I got to see for myself that humans and non-humans can not only work together but so much more, I watched these people argue for the freedom of a human soldier captured by our people and they managed to convince our elders to return him to his people but also managed to convince the Brotherhood that it was in their best intrest to end the hostilities, now here we are working with them and with the Free Peoples, and more join us all the time like yourselves, it is a very beautiful thing to see and more on a personal note now I get to feel something I was begining to belive I never would, love," Latisha said her voice going quiet and a little shy towards the end as she glanced at Yumi.
Yumi smiled and openly reached up to stoke the side of Latisha's head and beak causing the large Condor woman to close her eyes and lean into her touch while making a soft cooing noise.
"Oh god, do you two have to be so fucking precious?" Deadeye said with a chuckle and both Yumi and Latisha both grinned at her and chuckled.
"Hands off Deadeye this big hunk of fluffy girly goodness is mine, you can find your own fluffy feathered girlfriend," Yumi said with a grin causing Latishra's feathers to fluff up in embarrassment while Deadeye roared with laughter.
"Thanks for the advice but I like boys, now if you happen to have any feather covered muscle bound boys lurking around willing to shake their tail feathers for a girl with a sexy eye patch I might be willing to throw some caps your way as a finders fee," she said making Yumi roar with laughter while Latisha clacked her beak.
"Our boys are far more proud than a handful of your caps would be able to buy," she said with what sounded like a note of annoyance and possibly offence creeping into her voice at the idea of Deadeye wanting to buy a Valkyrie boy's time.
"Whoa easy there big girl, it was only a joke I would never pay for anyone's time, I got more pride than that and I hate the idea of it too, if I win me a fluffy feather-covered boy its gonna be because of the sexiness of my eye patch," Deadeye said with a grin.
From up the front of their little patrol group, it sounded like Snow snorted trying to hold in a laugh or possibly he could have sneezed it was hard to tell with the quiet Asian man's demeanour but it caught all three of the girl's attention all the same.
"Now snow here is probably in the market for one of your Deathclaw girls, a big girl like that all claws, scales and teeth, just right to dominate and break our young stoic Snow here out of his silent but deadly edge lord routine, bet she'd have him squeaking and writhing in mere seconds," Deadeye said with an evil grin as she nudged Yumi for her to take up the prank.
"I don't know any Deathclaws but I am positive I can find a Condor or possibly an Eagle genus who would be up for the challenge, I am positive they can break through that icey exterior and have him cawing like a freshly hatched chick in no time," Latisha said instantly picking up on the thread of the joke.
"Hmm not sure we got any Claw girls going spare at the moment, but from what I have heard on the grapevine we do now have a female Archnakai, a big girl too from what I hear, an honest-to-goodness Tarantula, so she gonna a be a whole lot of spidery girl to love, bet she could tie him up and have her fun with him and have him squirming in joy the entire time," Yumi said making the other two snigger, well that was until Snow finally snapped.
he spun around on the spot and glared at them, there was a look of murder in his bright blue eyes as he looked at them and the three girls stopped dead in their tracks.
"My love life and attractions are none of your concern or business, keep your ideas and opinions to yourselves!" he snarled before turning away and stomping off in the direction of their objective.
The three girls looked at one another and shared a look of guilt before they all quickly hurried to catch up with him.
"Look Snow sorry, we were just having a laugh is all, you know trying to break the ice with our new friends here, I obviously didn't mean any of it, it was just a joke," Deadeye said.
"If my words have offended you, Snow, then I humbly apologise, it was not my intention," Latisha said.
"If you're gonna work with the Free Peoples you are gonna need to mellow out man," Yumi said and both of the other two looked at her in surprise and Snow stopped dead in his tracks before turning to eye her with curiosity.
"What did you say?" he asked slowly and very deliberately.
"If you are going to work with the Free Peoples you are going to need to mellow out, its all well and good throwing a stomp off temper tantrum with us three but try that with a near six hundred pound Claw, or a four hundred pound super mutant, its just not going to work, now ok yes i concede that we may have gone a little far with pushing the joke and it made you feel uncomfortable, that was not my intention and for that I do apologise, also I'm not saying you don't have a right to get angry if someone says something that offends you but you have to understand something, the world at large doesn't care about your feelings they only really matter to you and those that care about you, so you can either give as good as you get or you can scream at the sky until you are blue in the face, if you choose the latter then good luck making any firends, you really can't go flying off the handle at little things man its pointless, you have to realise that some of the people with us have zero filter and I do mean zero, not becaus they are malisious or nasty its just they are not all fully versed in the delicicies of human socital norms if there are such a thing these days, take for example Ven, that big Claw boy loves winding people up and he would have said a lot worse to you, in fact so would pretty much any of our Claw lot and not because they are being malisious or trying to offend you but because they love embaressing humans and pushing boundries with them, its part of who they are, so all I'm saying is ease back a little man, we're all on the same side here and all we're trying to do is be friends and allies with you," she said placing her hands on her hips as she stared him down.
Snow made a humph noise and nodded his head.
"You, I like, you stand your ground and stand up for your principles and people, this is good, but I do urge you to consider this, would you have found it funny if it were I talking about a human girl being dominated and humiliated by one of your large Claw boys, or by a super mutant?" he asked.
"Probably yeah because we have girls in our ranks who like that sort of thing, though i push back on the humiliated point, while a lot of our non-humans can be rathr ominant in they ways and wants not a single one of them would ever try to humiliate the person they are with, they work fucking hard to convince them to take a chance on them, they would never dare to try some shit which is going to get their chosen human to leave their ass alone in the dust again, but yes I get where you are going on the whole equality thing and no double standards thing, but you will note that not one of us ever said the words 'against your will' not a single one of us would even ever joke about that shit Snow, on that you have my word because quite a few of the Free Peoples are survivors of that sort of thing and worse, both male and female, the joke was in the consensual context nothing more, if a single non-human tried that shit in the Free Peoples they would be out of there faster than they could wag their scaly tail or fuffy wings or whatever the fuck they have, we take that shit very seriously, just ask Jewel next time you are in the Vault, she got incredibly lucky that Zixxy did a deep dive on her mind and showed the truth behind her actions and her pure remorse or she'd have been up against the ire of all of Raymond's lot and that is somthing that worries even me," Yumi said and Snow nodded approvingly.
"Good, you have passed my test, you stand up for your people and their principles and do not back down when someone challenges them for fear of offending them, this is a good trait and how it should be, just because someone takes offence at something does not mean the thing is offensive, merely that one individual has taken offence to it and does not like it, the will of the one does not outweigh the will of the many, so thank you Yumi for proving what I hope to be true, and I am glad also that you believe in this as I do," Snow said giving her a respectful bow before turning on his heels and continuing on his way.
Yumi glanced at both Deadeye and Latisha curiously and both of them shrugged.
"Don't look at me girl, you have personally just won the 'got snow to say more than five fucking words award', so far you are the only recipient," Deadeye said in what had to be amazement.
The three girls just kind of shrugged together and then fell back in step with the curious and mysterious Asian man as he led the way but Yumi couldn't help but find herself with a kind of newfound respect for him now, he was willing to acknowledge his faults while standing up to others he believed were in the wrong and calling it out, she had to admit that was kinda a rare quality among many people these days.
Though to be fair she kinda figured that it was a trait quite universally shared among pretty much all of the Free Peoples, she began to wonder if that was one of the many reasons she liked being a part of the group so much, the ability to speak your mind and be challenged on both your thoughts and ideals.
"So ummm is fire the only thing you can control or do you have other little tricks up those sleeves of yours?" Deadeye asked suddenly as they walked and out of the corner of her eye Yumi caught a brief glance from Snow which was an indication that he was interested in the answer to this question as well.
"No I can pretty much control any element to some degree or another, for me it's simply a matter of tapping into the structure of the thing I want to control and then bending it to my will," Yumi said causing lightning to arc between her hands.
Deadeye's single exposed eye went wide as she saw the bolts jumping back and forth.
"Whoa, shit! That's awesome, wait does that mean you can control the elements with a person's body as well, like blood and stuff?' she asked.
"Now that's where things get odd, no I can't, I can set you on fire, I can heat you up until your blood boils, I can hit you with lightning or wind, hell I could drown you in a ball of water you can't escape but when it comes to the elements that are contained within a person's body I can't seem to establish a connection to them, it's like because that person has ownership over them they won't recognise my authority," Yumi said making the water vapour in the air condenses into a small spinning ball that floated between her hands.
"Hmm strange, I wonder why that is?" Deadeye asked curiously as she watched the undulating ball of water spinning on its axis between Yumi's hands like a transparent little planet between the hands of a mighty Goddess.
She touched the surface of the ball and it rippled before settling to become still again as it spun.
"No idea, it's something I've wondered about for a rather long time but something that I kinda came to accept, it's not like I really need to control the elements of a person's body to achieve my ends and if I am truly honest it actually makes me feel a little better about myself," Yumi said causing the ball of water to evaporate into a cloud of steam that blew away on the wind.
"Oh?" Deadeye asked curiously as she watched Yumi turn her attention to the dirt now making a small clump of it rise from the ground and separate out into a series of little darts that span around one another like they were dancing.
"It's bad enough knowing that I have this level of control over the world around me when everyone who looks like me can barely feel the world around them let alone interact with it, can you imagine how people would look at me if it was known that I could simply turn them inside out or turn their bones to powder on a whim?" Yumi said throwing the earth darts forward with such velocity that they punched clean through a nearby car door like metal bullets.
"Honestly I don't think things would be any different," Latisha said and Yumi glanced up at the big beautiful Condor woman with a sceptical look.
"Oh? And how do you figure that?' she asked.
"Well think about Seven and Wisp, from what I hear Seven can crush someone to the size of a soda can with nothing more than a thought on the matter and Wisp can fly her sparly ass out of that synthetic body of hers and into a person's head either joyriding around in their skull or taking control of them, but you don't see anyone looking at them like they are monsters or bad people, though truthfully I haven't actually met Seven yet but the way people speak about him says all I need to know about the guy, but either way, they don't think they are bad people because of what they can do, because they are good people and everyone knows it, they help people and they go out of their way to do so, i think in time people won't see you any different to them," Latisha said confidently as she placed her powerful arm around Yumi's shoulders.
Yumi smiled at that and nodded.
"You really do have a way of making a girl feel good about herself you know?" Yumi said smiling up at Latisha who ruffled her head feathers like a fluffy mohawk for a moment and then smiled back at her winking one of her large golden eyes as she did.
"Oh you don't know half of how good I can make a girl feel pretty girl, but I'm hoping you will soon enough," she said making Yumi bark a laugh and blush at the same time.
"Ugggh I'd say get a fucking room you two but A that's what you want to happen and B then I've got to put up with Snow's disapproving silent stares on how the mission is now running late, so yeah don't do that," Deadeye said making both Yumi and Latisha laugh now.
"I believe I have ideas on how we may best use your abilities to rapidly accomplish our mission after which they may do as they please as it will be no concern of mine how they choose to spend their free time," Snow said causing all three of them to glance at him.
"What have you got in mind?" Yumi asked pushing the stoic Asian man to give further details but he just clammed back up stating that it would become 'obvious' when the time came, which was less than helpful.
It took them two days all in all to make it to the facility that was their target, the ground was pretty rough going and they had to make a lot of detours due to collapsed bridges and impassible blockages but finally, they arrived at their target facility.
Each of them was wearing a personal comms system that allowed them to stay in communication and had been encrypted by Tinker Tom himself so the chance of anyone managing to crack through their transmissions wasn't just slim it was infinitesimally small.
Snow had devised a plan to put each of the team's strengths to good use to maximise their chance of not only success but of making this a silent and bloodless operation.
Deadeye was currently camped out at the top of a rather tall water tower nearby that gave a good overview of the factory.
Meanwhile, Latisha was circling high overhead putting those large wings and incredible eyes of hers to good use to paint a picture of the movement they were seeing on the ground below them.
Both Snow and Yumi were going to be acting as the infiltration team, it was going to be their job to not only breach the factory but to install the RAT onto any Institute network ports they found, preferably one where it wouldn't be discovered by accident and lead to the whole thing being compromised.
The plan was to simply observe the comings and goings throughout the day so that they would have a good idea of both the numbers and make-up of those they saw in the factory, then once night fell both Snow and Yumi would make their approach, they would be using the intel gathered during the day to plan their approach.
The biggest problem was that other than the snippets of intel gathered by Deadeye and her powerful scope the factory internals were going to be a blank slate to them, so they were going to have to adapt on the fly if they were going to successfully breach the place.
To this end, Snow had brought along a couple of prototype Stealth Boys that Tinker Tom had modified to give them a much longer life and not only were they were rechargeable from the fusion cores he'd rigged up to power the things, but they were not infallible as Coursers were known to be able to pick out operatives using these things, so they were still going to have to rely on their wits and abilities to see them through, to say this was going to be tricky, was an understatement.