The Four Knights of the Apocalypse

Slowly he opened his eyes, an uncomfortable sensation in his limbs, he struggled to his feet and immediatly started to scan his body for malfunction.

His Institute's X-01 Armor was still intact, the hull and energy, integrity were kept at maximum capacity, so fortunately nothing damaged it.

He then took a look at his inventory and that caught his attention; the Stealth Boy, Stimpacks and laser rifle were not present, they had been removed in some way.

He calculated the probabilities and probable scenarios that had occurred for the disappearance of the items, finding 5 possible variables.

1st It would have been stolen by Raiders, however he dismissed this probability as he was still operating at maximum capacity and his armor intact, if truly were raiders they would have stolen not only his items, but his armor and executed him, and If he had actually been captured by these tribals he would probably have some limb inoperative from physical assault or pieces of armor damaged by their attempts to remove it.

2nd He lost a lot of vital energy to work and was turned off by the result, his equipment being recovered by the institute, but again this theory was flawed by the simple fact that does not explain why he was left behind or how he miraculously restarted and still had his complete armor in peak condition, so he discarded this theory aswel.

3rd He was captured by beings from another planet, and they carried him there with his armor, thinking that it was part of his body for their entertainment, but he obviously dismissed this theory as being absurdly stupid, even if there was a tiny chance.

4th Railroad ambushed him and knocked him out and tried to reprogram it for their sick use, but due to the good condition of the armor and how reinforced it was, it was impossible to be caught not only off guard, but to fall without a fight.

The 5th and most likely, is that the Molecular Relay made some miscalculation, been damaged or had an unforeseen variable that had accidentally sent him to some unsigned location.

He still had no explanation for the change in his body.

He then deduced that he was in a totally unknown hostile territory without any weapons, and this was a massive problem, but he could solve it.

First Objective: Attempt to find inhabitants and make contact.

Second Objective: Extract information from them by any means necessary.

Third Objective: Pinpoint his location and the Location of the nearest Institute Outpost.

Fourth Objective: Return to His Progammer or higher head of research.

Ultimate Goal: RETURN TO THE INSTITUTE AT ANY COST

Slowly he got up and walked in a straight line, he didn't know his surroundings, but standing still wouldn't help at all.

And another problem was, the more he scanned his surroundings, the more intrigued he became, all the trees matched his database of pre-war American trees, the nature around him had a zero % level in radiation scans.

Most impressive were the animals that he caught a glimpse in his optics; together with the stream nearby, he detected aquatic lifeforms, in the trees he detected birds, in his audio he received and registered their singing.

He could not deny that it was a pleasant thing to hear and witness.

But, he immediately realized that these thoughts were not in the mission parameters or in the Institute's guidelines, he was having thoughts outside his programing, so he immediately ordered a program to purge this anomaly in his system.

........

But Nothing happened, no message advising the progress, no warning of potential error, nothing, he was just as confused by the event.

He tried again and again, but his systems simply did not respond, he tried to remotely reach in his databanks, he couldn't, it was like they never existed, then trying to run a general diagnosis on his system, and.... nothing....

No system worked.

It was as if none of them had been connected....

But, how was he awake then? A computer could not start without its main system working, or a car without its engine.

Slowly, he put his hands around his helmet, and with a 'Tsss' and smoke coming out of the sides, he removed the helmet, and placed it on a rock, he needed to diagnose the situation of his optics himself if necessary to see the problem.

He then marched closer to the stream, a self-repair will have to be done if he wants to proceed further, without his systems, he would be totally blind.

But when he knelt on the bank of the river and caught a glimpse at his reflection, he just bulged his eyes and gaped at the sight.

Slowly he moved his hand to touch his own face, and the reflection did exactly the same.

But that reflection couldn't be him! It was an horse insectoide! There were no humanoid prototypes of synthetic insects! He had all the Synths models in his database and memory! None of the Synth prototypes had blue eyes, a horse face with a holed horn and scaly black skin! It couldn't be! It was simply impossible!

He didn't notice, but he had started to shake a lot as in the soil where he stood.

What had happened to him? Why? HOW??

Crack Crack Crack.

Then, his audio receptors picked up a noise behind him, scrubs moving and sticks cracking.

Getting up quickly, and ignoring his enormous confusion and internal conflict, he turned to his back and checked his surroundings.

Scanning the scene around him, he detected an anomaly between some bushes, animal or raider it can be a treat either way.

He picked up a huge rock that was at his side that was almost twice his size with one hand, being only possible by the strength of his Metalic squeleton together with Power Armor.

He threw it close to the anomaly, missing on purpose to scare it by the force of impact to expose itself, if it was a live being.

The Rock hits one of the trees near the bushes, breaking it in half, with the impact, a scream that he could identified as being feminine, and then the sound of something falling, probably the being that had been frightened.

Then he then saw two hands coming out of the bushes, making it difficult to see through the shadows formed by the trees

"WOW WOW WOW! Calm down! I want my head the way it is! I surrender!"

He did not admit it to himself, but inside of his neural network, the Courser was extremely relieved to find a rational being, he could not calculate how much time he would have to spend in search of some settlement or something similar for information in a completely unknown territory, not to mention the risks.

"Get out of the cover and identify yourself, or I will have to make this.... Unpleasant, for both of us."

The bushes moved even more, when the figure walked more and more towards him, the Courser positioned himself in a combat pose the closer she got, there were already several cases registered by synths in the commonwealth where after surrendering the Unknown raiders or assailants attacked them when their weapons and guards were lowered.

Obviously they never accomplished anything, mere bullets didn't fully affect the abilities of any synth, no matter the generation, it was amusing them to think they had any chance.

When the figure revealed itself, leaving the shadows, it only made the Courser question himself even more, it was a feline! A bipedal feline!

Slowly she approached the Power Armored Synth, who not shown because of his helmet, was shocked by the figure, so much so, that he had come out of his combat stance, the figure noticed this, and giggled and made an flirtatious expression.

"Do you like what you see my little knighty friend~?"

Knighty....?

He regained his composure, and analyzed the figure in front of him.

It was obviously a caramel colored cat with some brown spots, it had an anomaly on its head, a dark purple hairstyle, with very prominent eyelashes, it wore a well-worn reddish coat, with some parts sewn with other fabrics of other colors, it contained a bow on its tail, and in the region that would be its chest, it contained the top of a lingerie.

With that, he concluded with its voice, one of the pieces of clothing and some makeup that it had detected on its face, that 'it' was female.

"You don't match any species that I have found that is bipedal or sentient, my analysis can help to store data for future research on your species." He told in a monotone tone.

Her flirtatious expression changed to one of confusion.

"Ok.....?"

An awkward silence followed with the Courser's response, both just looking at each other.

The cat just looked with an expression that would mix irritation and confusion.

"You are really out of place huh? You have more emotions than a fucking brick friend, lighten up."

The Courser tilted his head to the side in a confused notion.

"I don't have lights on my body to 'light it up' ma'am."

She snickered with the Armored Courser's response.

"Good one knighty, what are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?"

She asked in curiosity as she motioned the scenery around them.

"The means of my arrival are a mystery even to me, no place registered by my masters mentions a place as preserved as the ones we are present at."

He says keeping his tone monotone.

"Preserved...? It is just a mere forest...."

She asked more confused, chocking the Courser with how casually she mentioned, a forest like this should be one of the most rare discovery's in modern human history and she was shrugging of like it was absolutely nothing.

Then she snapped her index and thumb while showing an expression of someone who discovered something with an 'Aha'!

"You came from the Badlands haven't ya?"

She said pointing at the Courser with a smug grin, he was just more confused.

"Badlands...?"

She just rolled her eyes

"Yeah dummy, the Badlands, wateland with all trees dead and with non-existant animals? Horrible and depressing place....?"

"The description matches with the landscape of my creator's land..."

Her smile increased even more.

"You are a changeling???" She asked excited while jumping up and down.

"A what....?"