Chapter 31: Sky High.
Seven, Wisp, Visa, Runs and Riss all stood around looking at the creature that had burst from the basement, it was obvious by the mixture of expressions written across their faces that none of them had ever seen anything like it before.
The creature looked to be a curious blend of human and spider with the top half of his body being human for the most part although he did appear to have a set of furry feeler like mandibles attached to the sides of his face next to his wider than the normal mouth and he also appeared to have eight very black eyes spread out around his head with two utterly huge ones where a normal humans would be giving him a kind of permanently amazed/surprised expression, it kinda reminded Seven of the little jumping spiders that used to get into his room aboard the airship and always set up their homes near the air ducts.
The skin of the human part of his body was as white as snow, so white in fact that it could pretty much be considered albino, this also included his hair which was long and appeared to be tied back behind his head in a ponytail using what looked like a spun spider silk hair tie.
But it was the lower half of his body that really caught the eye, he had a large thorax section with eight large spider-like legs attached and they weren't human legs but rather full-on spider's legs complete with black and yellow fur like that of a tarantula, fur that also covered the large abdomen that stuck out behind him with two little web-spinning spinnerets that were currently wiggling like crazy along with his large legs as the strange creature tried to right himself off his back.
He was like a centaur but instead of a horse his lower half was spider, Seven had never seen or even imagined anything like the surprisingly young-looking creature that was currently flat on his back wiggling his long furry legs in the air as he rocked from side to side trying to right himself.
Seven stepped forwards, "Visa a hand please," he said and his big claw girl snapped out of her shock and confusion and nodded before stepping forwards and with each of them grabbing either a leg or an arm they flipped the spider boy over so he was now flat on his belly.
"Thank you," the boy said in a shaky sounding voice as he hoisted himself up to his feet even with eight legs he was wobbly and Seven could see that they were threatening to fail him so he stepped forwards and gripped under his armpit on his left side steadying him as Visa did the same on the right side.
"Whoa easy there big fella, take some deep breaths, looks like the heat and probably the smoke got to you in there," Seven said noticing for the first time that a lot of the hair on the back half of the sider boy's abdomen looked singed as it was crispy and curled up and there was the throat invading fragrance of burnt hair washing off him.
"I-I-I thought I was going to die, I was so scared, I really thought I was going to be burned alive in there, thank you for saving me," the boy said in a very soft voice.
"No problems and for what it's worth I'm sorry our fight burnt your home, it wasn't our intention to cause you any pain or problems, we simply didn't even know you were in there," Seven said.
The spider boy shook his head, "Nobody knew I was in there, that was the whole point, I was hiding from the bad humans, they chased me away from their place by shooting those gun things of their at me, I should have listened to my mom, she always said humans would never accept me, that they would hate me because of how I look, I tried my best I really did, I just wanted to be friends, I even offered to help them with the radroaches, but they shot at me and chased me away, now I can't even go home because they sealed up the caverns when they realised where I'd come from" the spider boy said in a choked up sounding voice though Seven wasn't sure if it was his emotions or his smoke inhalation getting to him.
Suddenly Riss stepped forwards, "I know thissss pain too young one, it happened to me too, bad humanssss hurt me, experimented on me, did horrible thingssss to me, for a very long time I hated all humanssss, but meeting thesssse people here made me realisssse that not all humanssss are bad, some are good and ssssome are beautiful," she said stroking the side of Runs's face with her hand while she coiled her tail possessively around him.
For the first time, the spider boy lifted his head and Seven got his first proper look at the boy's face, he looked to be between 18 and 20 years old by human standards, "What's your name kid?" Seven said and the spider boy looked at him.
"Malakai, Malakai Yellowleg," he said and Seven suddenly noticed that he did indeed have a single yellow leg out of the eight seven of which were as black as the night.
"Well I for one am very glad to make your acquaintance Malakai Yellowleg, my name is Seven, this utterly ravishing specimen of claw femininity here is Visa, the happy red-skinned human one step away from being stealthed off into a bush that isn't on fire somewhere there is Runs-With-NightStalkers and the big NightStalker girl who is about to stealth him away into said bush is Riss, oh and the sparkly cloud girl living in my head is Wisp," Seven said.
Malakai looked at them one at a time obviously trying to put on his best-smiling face with his mandibles drawn up, then when Seven mentioned Wisp looked confused, "Sparkly cloud girl that lives in your head?' he asked and at that Wisp literally poured out of Seven's nose and ears before reforming into a sparkling gold cloud in front of the startled looking spider boy who backed himself up away in fright.
"Oh don't worry she's harmless unless you piss her off, then she's deadly," Seven said with a friendly grin as Wisp morphed herself into a floating thumbs up in front of him, Malakai looked utterly amazed and he reached out to touch the sparkling cloud floating around him, Wisp moved and then shot all around him circling him rapidly to the point where the spider boy couldn't keep up and he began dancing on the spot looking somewhat like a jumping spider learning to tap dance.
"Before you ask she's a human just like me, we're just a little different from your garden variety humans something I'm guessing we share in common given the look of you," Seven said as Wisp shot back into his head so she could communicate using Seven's words if need be.
Malakai nodded his head, "Every Arachnakai knows that story, it's the founding story and we are all taught it as hatchlings" he said in a proud voice.
"Arachnakai?" Visa asked and Malakai nodded.
"It's what my people call ourselves," he said.
Suddenly there was a crash to their left and part of the courthouse wall came tumbling down with a shower of sparks and embers not to mention a puff of flames like an angry dragon was trapped inside, "Ok story time later, running the fuck away from the burning town now" Seven said and Malakai looked suddenly very lost and alone.
"Where shall I go now?" he asked looking around himself.
"Well, I know you don't know us but you are more than welcome to tag along with us," Seven said and Malakai looked utterly amazed by this, or maybe it was his huge jumping spider-like eyes it was hard to tell.
"R-Really? You'd take me with you? Even though I look like this?" he exclaimed as if not truly believing his ears.
Seven stepped forwards and place a hand on Malakai's bare slender shoulder, "I'm a human who loves a claw, that's a human who loves a NightStalker, there are two other members of our group you are yet to meet, a human boy called Gregory who loves a claw boy called Ven, out of anyone on this crazy-ass planet who could have pulled your eight-legged arse out of that burning basement you got pulled out by probably the only group who don't care two single shits about the way you look Malakai, the question is would you like to come with us? If you wish to go your own way then we will simply wish you well and leave you be, the choice is yours but I suggest you make it quickly before this whole world of burning shit comes down on our heads" Seven said.
Malakai looked towards the edge of town and then back at the very mismatched group, then again and then he looked Seven right in the eye, "Take me with you, please" he said and Seven nodded.
The group with their new potential friend in two-legged it across the town between the burning buildings, the whole place was utterly coming down around them as they ran, or in the case of Malakai scuttled along.
They reached the grounded Vertibird where Ven was trying his hardest to cuddle and distract Gregory to death while he was looking over the controls of the small prewar flying craft, they both looked up as Seven and the others approached quickly with buildings starting to collapse sending huge plumes of smoke and ash not to mention flames skywards all around them.
"Holy shit Seven you really know how to throw a fucking party I'll say that hey who is this?" Ven exclaimed turning to look at Malakai in surprise as the Arachnakai boy scuttled up to the side of the Vertibird panting heavily as he did.
"This is Malakai Yellowleg, he's an Arachnakai and we found him trapped in the burning basement of the courthouse after number four lit it up like a fucking torch," Seven said.
Ven hopped down with a heavy thud that betrayed the heavyweight that his frame carried made entirely of utterly solid muscle and cute scales as Gregory would have said, he walked right up to the surprised looking spider boy and circled him which caused Malakai to use his eight legs to turn on the spot to face him like a tank using its treads to turn on the spot which made Seven smile.
Ven laughed happily at this and tried to outpace the surprisingly quick spider boy by trying to get around him before he could turn to face him but not to be outdone Malakai seemingly enjoying the playful exchange with a potential new friend put on a surprising burst of speed and not only turned fully on the spot but jumped right upwards only to land directly behind Ven and when the big Claw spun to try and catch him in his sights again Malakai did it again only this time he landed on the top of the Vertibird and hung off the side of it like his feet were glued to the metal.
The big claw boy looked up at the spider boy as he hung motionless from the side of the Vertibird with his legs splayed out to spread his weight and maintain his grip, then a wide grin broke out on Ven's face displaying his wicked and dangerous fangs, "Oh I like him he's fun" Ven said and that's when Gregory poked his head out and found himself stuck in-between the big spider boy's legs where he poked his head through one of the gaps and looked out.
"Holy shit now that's a big spider!" he exclaimed looking up as Malakai looked down and saw the human boy peering up from between his legs before deftly leaping down and landing gracefully on the ground.
"Gregory, Malakai, Malakai, Gregory, Gregory here is our master engineers and fixer of things great and small and all-round machine genius not to mention stealer of Claw boy's hearts," Seven said gesturing between the pair.
"Mmmmm you got that last part right Seven," Ven said finally seeing an opportunity to pester his human boy before gripping the front of his suit before he could escape back into the cockpit and pulling him into a deep interspecies kiss.
"Ummm don't take this the wrong way but how come you two can talk? I mean I've seen your kind before but I've never seen one who could speak, when I first rolled over and saw you Visa I thought I was going to have a heart attack but it was only when I saw Seven and then heard you speak I realised you weren't going to hurt me" Malakai said turning on the spot to look between the two Claws one of which was still snogging his human's face off.
"We're what the humans refer to as the evolved genus of claw, but in reality other than the higher brain functions allowing us to master language we are no different from our less talkative brethren," Visa said wrapping her arms around Seven from behind and pulling him against her.
"And the pair of you are a couple?" Malakai asked in surprise gesturing between the pair of them and Seven nodded proudly.
"Yup this big hunk of sexy scales with the cutest tail on earth here is all mine," he said proudly making Visa growl and swish said tail.
"Just like this super cute slice of sex on human legs right here belongs to me, so hands and legs off spider boy," Ven said with a playful grin.
Malakai raised his hands and waved them like he was surrendering or trying to soothe the big claw, "Oh you have nothing to worry about from me, I only like girls, not that I've actually seen an Arachnakai girl in a rather long time" he said sounding sad.
Seven felt Wisp stir in his head, "Ask him what happened" she said so Seven did.
"Well umm, it's kinda a long boring story," he said rubbing his hand behind his head and ruffling his white-silver hair.
"Well we'd like to hear it Malakai, hey I tell you what why don't we trade, we'll tell you our stories and you can tell us yours?" Seven said and this seemed to perk the spider boy up immensely, it seemed the promise of an interesting story really got him going and he nodded his agreement.
"Why don't we save it for when we're in the air? Sitting around here is going to either draw more Enclave or other fucking vultures to us" Gregory said and everyone looked at him in shock.
"In the air? As in fly? You mean to tell me that you can fly this thing?" Seven exclaimed and Gregory gave him a grin.
"Oh, this thing? It's easy, hell a child could fly one of these with zero training, they were made super easy because of the high turnover of pilots back in the war, so many of them kept getting shot down that the air force just couldn't keep up with the demand of new pilots needed, so they got engineers to fix the problem, so they did, for the most part, the computer flies it and the pilot simply steers it and controls the height and speed, plus this girl has a full tank of fuel so it would be stupid to waste it and can you think of a better way to put some serious distance between all of these fucking animals hunting us?" Gregory said.
That got head shakes and shrugs all around, "Well then let's do it" Gregory said and Seven turned to Malakai.
"Well this is it choice time, we are most likely never going to return to here Malakai so if you have family here you will most likely never see them again if you come with us, so you need to make a choice now, take my hand and step into the unknown, or turn and head for home," Seven said holding his hand out to the curious-looking spider boy who blinked all six of his eyes at the same time as he looked at Seven's outstretched hand before he sucked up a large breath to obviously steel his nerves.
"There's nothing left for me here and I want to see the world, but are you sure about this? I mean I've never flown before and hell if I hadn't seen those things in the sky I'd have never even believed it to actually be possible, so your sure it's safe?" he said taking Seven's hand.
"That's the spirit and yes I'm sure, don't you worry Malakai you are in good hands with us, that guy in there is the smartest human I know who isn't evil, trust me when I say if anyone can figure it out it's him," Seven said feeling Wisp doing an odd little celebration in his head.
"Oh and sorry about this in advance Visa as I'm sure you're most pleased with Seven's new attire but there's a new toy in the back for you Seven and don't worry I took the liberty of doing a comp jump from the remnants of yours, you'd be surprised how easy it is to clone the safeguards on those things if you know how, so now it's yours and only yours, call it compensation for them fucking up your old one," Gregory said before escaping Ven's grip and vanishing back into the cockpit.
Seven raised an eyebrow and peered into the crew bay of the Vertibird where he instantly clocked something that made his face crack into a super-wide smile not to mention made Visa groan and run her claws down her face, "Fucking goddamn tin suits!" she snarled as Seven jumped up and rushed up to the mint condition suit of X-01 Enclave issue power armour stood in the dock at the back looking like he was about to hug the thing.
"Hell yes! Upgrades people! Fucking upgrades!" Seven said.
Five minutes later Seven had registered his new suit which thanks to Gregory's work was locked to his DNA just like the others and he was sat on a bench with Visa scowling at the new tin suit that once again hid all her human prettiness from her eyes, the others were all sat around the cabin well all except for Malakai who due to his odd-shaped frame was squatted low on his legs with his underside pressed down onto the deck and his legs bunched up under him in the middle of them all.
The outer doors of the Vertibird were now shut and each of them was wearing a headset so they could talk, which looked utterly adorable and hilarious on both the claws and on Riss, especially as Riss kept flicking her tongue at the microphone.
The engines powered up as Gregory began flipping switches and twisting knobs from the cockpit, "Ok people hold on to your tails, arses, furry abdomens or whatever the hell else you got to hold onto we are outta here!" Gregory yelled into the comms and with that, he began to manipulate the controls.
Their accent was a little shaky at first causing them to spin around and weave about a bit making everyone in the cab look somewhat alarmed, hell Malakai looked like he was one step away from starting to knit parachutes, but Gregory quickly found his feet and they began to climb into the smoke-filled air.
"Hey, Gregory do you think this thing has a tracking beacon?" Seven asked into his headset.
"Oh most certainly, not that it's going to do them any good" Gregory said with a sly note in his voice.
"Oh?" Seven asked curiously.
"Figured if we were going to steal this thing which was a good likelihood then they were going to be able to track us right to where we went, so I may have tweaked the GPS just a little bit so it gives a false signal, basically it's going to report our signal as three hundred miles north of wherever we are," Gregory said which made Seven laugh.
"Nice work Gregory, you never fail to impress me, man," Seven said grinning at the back of the young man in the pilot's seat's head.
"Nor me," Ven said proudly gazing at the young human piloting the craft.
"Thanks, guys, I just hope it works, right well strap in it's going to be a long flight," Gregory said.
Seven turned to the rather nervous looking Malakai, "So then where were we? Ahh yes your story, ok so we'll tell you ours and then you can tell us yours how about that?" he said and the young Arachnakai male nodded eagerly.
So Seven with the help of the others launched into their tale so far, starting with what he had Wisp had suffered at the hands of the Enclave with Visa and Ven doing the same for their side of the tale.
The young spider boy was on the edge of his seat as Seven told him the tale, well legs anyway as he didn't exactly have a seat when he was finished the young Archnakai male looked utterly amazed, although that could have been those two huge eyes of his again.
"That all sounds so utterly incredible! So you can move things with your mind simply by thinking about it!?" Malakai exclaimed looking at Seven who lifted a hand up and Malakai exclaimed as he felt two very human feeling hands run over his slender bare shoulders, he then turned just in time to see one of the fire extinguishers float off its hook do a circle of the cabin and land back where it started.
"Yup, comes with a heavy price though, every single time I use it, it hurts something fierce, I'm trying to build up my tolerance to it much in the same way you make a muscle stronger by using it as much as I can, but it's slow going," Seven said.
"That's incredible! It actually felt like I had hands-on me for a moment then!" Malakai exclaimed looking at Seven in awe.
Next to them Visa growled jealously, it was obvious she wanted to be touched and Seven leaned over and put his newly power suited arm around his big jealous claw and pulled her a little closer, "My male can do incredible things with those invisible hands of his" she purred knowingly all while Wisp made gagging and retching noises inside his head.
"Wow, you guys have come so far and seen so much in such a short space of time!" Malakai exclaimed and Seven smiled at him.
"So your turn now Malakai, tell us your tale, like for instance how did your people come to be, I've never seen anyone like you before and both I and my sister have travelled around a lot," Ven said gesturing to him.
"Well there's not much to tell really, I'm an Arachnakai as I explained, we live underground in a vast cave network quite a few miles from here, towards the place humans refer to as the Rockies, we came from a mutation that happened at the end of the war, there was a group of humans that when they knew the war was coming built a bunker in the cave network and they took all of their pets down there with them so they'd be safe, well one of those humans kept spiders, more specifically tarantulas, well as it turned out quite a few of those spiders were pregnant and were setting up their egg sacs when the bombs fell, the radiation not only managed to breach the bunker as they hadn't built it deep enough but it also got into the ground water that supplied the bunker, the humans got sick as did the spiders and the other animals but the baby spiders still in their eggs were safe, infact as they were still in the embryonic stage the radiation changed them, when they emerged into their new world everyone and everything around them was dead including their mothers, now you'd think this would be the end for the little baby spiders, trapped in a glass box simply waiting to die of starvation or maybe dehydration, but no, the human that had brought his spiders down there knew he was dying and had seen all of his beloved spiders die, but he somehow knew the eggs were still alive, so in one last act of kindness he opened all of the cages containing eggs so that when the spiderlings emerged they were able to escape, now the little baby spiders didn't know anything of kindness yet, they didn't know what sacrifice was, they were just baby spiders with no real understanding of the world around them, all they knew was they were hungry and needed to eat and thirsty so they needed to drink, so they did the only thing they could, they drank the contaminated water and they ate the contaminated dead humans" Malakai said as the others listened in stunned silence.
"Mutation?" Seven asked and Malakai nodded.
"The radiation had done something to them in their embryonic stage, when they consumed more rads from both the water and the dead humans it caused something to happen, none of us really know how it did but somehow from ingesting the rad soaked human meat the spiderlings began to absorb the DNA of the humans and it began to fuse with their own, it took five generations for everything to really take hold but every generation was far larger than the last and they began to morph, spider and human DNA meshing together to form a union that gave birth to us, now there is a whole civilisation of us living down there, we learned everything we could form the journals of the man who brought us down there and they became like holy texts to us, to us he was the father of our people as the mother spiders who carried their eggs there with them were the mothers, ten different genera of spider but only one human that started it all, they are like the parents of my race," Malakai said somewhat proudly.
"Wow, the power of radiation never ceases to amaze me, it takes what nature has created as just changes it however it pleases, sometimes for the worse just look at all the fucking nightmares we got roaming around out there, but then sometimes it just gets it right, like a blind artist throwing paint at a canvas and accidentally creating the Mona Lisa," Gregory said.
"What's the Mona Lisa?" Ven asked curiously.
"A famous painting by an artist from hundreds of years ago, it's stored in a place called France in a museum called the Louvre, maybe one day I'll figure out a way to take you to see it if it's still there of course," Gregory said sounding both happy and sad.
Malakai nodded in agreement, "We thought the same thing, the chances were astronomical but yet it happened, from those unknowing baby spiders who were just acting on being hungry and eating the man who in his last act of kindness towards the innocent spiders used his final breath to free them and give them a chance to a whole race of people who would have never come to be if it wasn't for him and a very unique set of circumstances, the other humans played a part of course as the spiders fed on them too, so their DNA was also meshed into the mix, but if it was not for this singular man none of us would be here, so we give our thanks to him" Malakai said sound proud this time.
"So that's the how, now the why, if you guys have this great civilization down there how come no one's ever heard of it and how come you are up here?" Seven asked.
"Oh we've tried to make contact before, we don't hate humans far from it, it would be like hating a part of ourselves, ironically we are as much human as we are spider, literally half and half, but that insight also lets us be cautious and we've seen first hand not only what power humans have to destroy one another but anything that does not fit their ideals, so we decided to keep to ourselves and we became reclusive, choosing to protect ourselves and what's ours, any who wander down into the caves are captured and held till it is determined if they are an ally or a threat, any allies will be released so they may do things like trade with us and aid us, enemies well they never see the light of day again, there are so many more of the latter than the former," Malakai said with genuine sadness in his voice.
"But you are up here, how did that happen?" Seven asked and the young Arachnakai male looked up at him with his huge rather expressive black eyes.
"Because I wanted to see the world, all of it, not just my dark little corner of it, I read every book I could find, watched every hold vid we had, it filled me with wonder, wonder of what this world truly is, I genuinely believe that my kind and normal humans can co-exist peacefully and happily if we simply learn to understand one another, the traders that come to us and bring us foods we cannot get and materials we cannot scavenge while we trade them clothes made from the finest spider silks that they cannot get anywhere else are proof of this, hell on you're travels you may well have even seen Arachnakai goods and never even known it, I wanted so very badly to prove this to everyone, so I packed up my things and took the plunge, I sneaked out and ran away to the surface to make my own way in the world, didn't go exactly as I planned," Malakai said sadly.
"What happened?" Visa asked.
"Well until I met you guys I haven't met any good humans really, everyone I met either ran away from me, chased me away or tried to hurt me, I never wanted to ever hurt anyone, I just wanted to show them that I was a good person and that just because I looked different that didn't mean I was scary or bad, but none of them even gave me the chance, every time I tried to approach people r a town they either chased me away or tired to hurt me, calling me things like monster or freak, it really hurt, I spent so many tears on them, then somehow they figured out where the main entrance to our territory was and a load of them got together and they sealed it with explosives causing a cave-in, so now I couldn't even go home," Malakai said with very real sadness and pain radiating from his voice.
"Utter fucking bastards, that poor boy did nothing wrong, he just wanted a friend!" Wisp snarled in Seven's head.
Seven patted Visa's shoulder and she glanced at him and nodded as she understood what he was going to do, Seven stood up and moved over to squat down before the young Arachnakai man, he reached out and placed both of his real hands on the young man's shoulders as he looked up at him.
"I am so sorry that happened to you Malakai, I know it would be real easy for you to hate humans at this point and nobody could blame you, but I want you to realise that you were right, there are good people and good humans out there, I like to think that we here right now are good people, not just good humans but good people I mean look at us, you have two claw loving humans, one NightStalker loving human and a cloud girl and we are proud to be different, we are proud of who we are, look at his utterly gorgeous slab of pure claw beauty and feminine beauty right here, when I look at her my heart beats like a jackhammer and the fact that she looks at me, in the same way, makes me prouder than anything else because as strange as it sounds I managed to lure her away from her own kind and into my arms," Seven said hearing a deep throaty growl from behind him.
"And nothing makes me prouder than to have been lured away by this exquisite slice of sweet human meat because he has opened my eyes to how beautiful the world really can be," Visa said running her huge clawed hands over his sloped metal covered shoulders.
Malakai looked at them in amazement, "If you'll forgive the question how does it even work between you? I mean can you err umm..." Malakai began and becoming suddenly very flustered and embarrassed as his embarrassment overpowered his curiosity and Seven practically felt Visa smiling over his shoulder.
"Mate?" she asked and Malakai nodded silently.
"Oh trust me we are very very compatible and this beautiful human here has shown me things that I never even dared to dream of in my deepest most intimate dreams, he loves me like no one ever has and he has shown me the true depths of the human heart, for me, Seven and those like him are what I consider to be true humans, the others like the ones who hurt us and you are simply chaff, they are just jealous of the life they could have is they simply stopped being utter bigoted idiots and simply opened their minds to what the world really is, Seven is also a survivor of the cruelty of humanity, now we are running from people who would take all of that away from us and turn him into a weapon to serve their power hunger all while looking for others like us so we can help them to help us make this world a better place one life at a time," Visa said proudly.
Malakai looked utterly amazed at all of this, that's when he broke down and instantly started crying, "Thank you, oh thank you great Adam, father of all Arachnakai, I knew I was right! I knew it in my heart that there were good humans like you out there because they are part of us as you are part of us, I knew that if someone could do what you did to give us a chance at life even in your final breath that good humans must exist and all I needed to do was find them and they found me, thank you great Adam and thank you Seven and all of you not only for saving me from certain death but for being everything I ever hoped I'd find" he said clasping his hands together with tears streaming down his face from his six eyes down his surprisingly handsome face.
Seven actually felt his heart both melt and burn at the same time, he was so utterly happy that even without even really doing anything at all he had touched a young hopeful life in the best possible way, it was just a pity that he wouldn't be able to spread this happiness he had found back to his people, but maybe just maybe they could bring his joy to the world instead.
That's when Seven actually noticed that Malakai was basically naked, "Aren't you cold Malakai?" Seven asked gesturing to his nakedness and the young spider boy looked down at himself and it was as if he realised for the first tie that he had no clothes on.
"Oh shit! I utterly forgot my shirt got burned!" he exclaimed trying to cover himself by hugging himself with his arms.
Seven held up a finger and reached for his bag which he'd recovered just before they'd headed to the Vertibird, he reached in and pulled one of his spare shirts out of it and handed it to Malakai, the young spider boy looked at him in amazement and took.
"Thank you Seven," he said putting the shirt on and it instantly drowned him as Seven was a fair bit larger in the upper body than he was, then to all of their fascinations Malakai leaned back and began pulling silken threads from his spinnerets which he then began to weave together into threads which he then used to bind the clothes up so they were tight on him.
"Thank you Seven," he said smiling at him and Seven nodded.
"Don't sweat it Malakai least I can do after we cost you your home and nearly got you killed" Seven said.
"Hey it was worth it because now I have a new life and I am so very ready for my adventure and I am so glad it's you guys I get to take me on it," he said and Seven grinned, this young spider boy's happiness was utterly infectious, Seven only hoped they could live up to his ideals and could show him the life he'd always prayed for, now all they had to do was also figure out where that was going to be.