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            The Four Knights of the Apocalypse             
                     -by The Toaster-                      
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          Finding the Knight at a minute's notice          
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Finding the Knight at a minute's notice
With a grunt, he slowly tried to get up,The creak of moving metal was already common to his ears, the movement of the gears in his Power Armor going into action as he slowly tried to get up.
At his touch, he heard a noise, a noise difficult to be perceived, however, for his ears trained to hear the smallest detail, he can hear a sound that he had never heard before.
A sound of something that seemed to be tiny and weak because of the easy way it broke, but soft as a feather, on his nose, a smell he had never smelled before, a wonderful smell.
It was not the scent of carrion from somebody after being disintegrated by the rays of his weapon, it was not the smell of guts open in the sun for hours, it was not the smell of radioactive earth.
Slowly, as he got up, he looked around, his eyes widened and he gaped under his helmet, there had Trees! Real trees! Not one totally destroyed or falling apart by radiation, a real oak tree! Brown and green!
Finally he was on his feet, and managed to take a look and observe his surroundings, it was wonderful, Grass in his boots and a lake nearby, it was just like the images of pre-war America...
Then the thought hit his head.
'I died...?'
It was one of the only explanations, in his whole life as a soldier in the Brotherhood of Steel he traveled to almost every corner of America, and he had already lost all hope that there was some tinge of life that had not been consumed by radiation.
And here it was, an intact tree, and as its armor said, totally free of radiation.
Slowly he extended his hand to palpate her, to see if it was truly real, to see if everything was not a dream, when he would make contact with the tree.
"STOP! HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE!"
He immediately froze, and mentally swear at himself in his head.
While he was enjoying the scenery and its beauty, he completely forgot to form a perimeter and recon the area for hostiles.
This is one of the most important lessons taught to members of the Brotherhood when they were still Squatters, and he completely forgot!
He sighed, and raised his hands in surrender, recognizing the voice as coming from behind his back, he did not therefore recognize the assailant.
"Identify yourself! Or i will fire!"
He recognized, the voice had a deep and mechanical tone, very common to hear when the user wears a power armor helmet, he felt a relief thinking he could be another member of the Brotherhood, but he soon remembered that all factions of the Wasteland Just like the Brotherhood had some kind of Power Armor.
He was silent for a while, hesitating to answer, not knowing who was behind him and whether he would react hostilely to the answer.
With another mental sigh, he answered.
"Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel......"
A long period of silence reigned after he revealed his affiliation and rank to the unknown.
After those long, tense moments, he heard the voice from behind him respond
"A Brotherhood knight? You are stuck here too?"
He became confused by the question, and slowly lowered his hands and look back, and became more surprised.
It was a carrier of the Power Armor T-45, his silver paintwork and his symbol on his Chestplate said it all.
He was a Minutemen.
"Minutemen? Here? And what do you mean 'stuck'....?"
Minutemen seemed to decrease his stance, and on closer inspection, he was not armed, the citizen-soldier had bluffed, and he had fallen for it.
Mentally, he facepalmed, twice he did shit, unacceptable, if the Elder saw him, surely he would have already lost his Knight title, if, he had survived the enemy that had caught him off guard.
Luckily the Minutemen were not raiders, they were civilized enough to ask first and shoot later, his types are the ones who you can start a friendly dialogue.
The Minutemen seemed to find the question amusing by looking at his body language.
"So you fell here recently? Or were you too breezy to notice the fucken' beautiful landscape, Buckethead?"
He gritted his teeth under his helmet, but ignoring the insult, he had a point, looking around, he couldn't deny it.
The landscape was wonderful, on top of a hill, he could observe kilometers of trees, a small river passing by them, but most surprising of all, he saw birds singing.
Birds! He had already read in pre-war books about what their singing was like, and now listening with his own ears, it was magnificent.
"Yes.... I See your point..... Nowhere in America i have ever seen such a beautiful place.... And so preserved as well...."
He heard a muffled laugh under the Minutemen's helmet as he slowly turned and walked down a dirt path.
"Welcome to heaven then, because there is no fucken way we are in America anymore."
He returned his attention to the Minutemen.
"Were do you think you are goi-....WHAT THE FUCK???"
That made the Minutemen stop and look at his Brotherhood counterpart, seeing him paying attention to his back, specifically, the huge furred WINGS that came out of the back of the armor.
He looked at him and then to his back and give a hushed laugh.
"Strange right? I got these beautiful fuckers when i got here, I never thought something like this would ever happen to me."
The Knight could only be completely silent, he couldn't understand what had happened to that soldier, radiation? No, there was not a single drop of radiation in this region according to its power armor....
If it was not a mutation, what could it be? A Vault-Tec experiment? HIV? The Enclave?
He couldn't find an answer, slowly sitting defeated on a rock, looking at the floor and not knowing what the hell was going on.
The Minutemen seemed to have noticed this, and slowly walked towards him.
"Look, a lot has changed since i got here, the animals, the fields, heck, even the time zone is fucked up, however, please do NOT shoot me with what i will show you."
He slowly raised his head to look at the Minutemen, not knowing what he was going to show now, according to himself, nothing else could surprise him anymore, what else was going to happen? A Synth communist Utopia? Aliens? Chinese?
The Power armored farmer slowly positioned his hands on the sides of the helmet, and with a 'tssss', the helmet came loose, and he revealed his face.
He didn't know how to react, he expected everything but that, a ghoul, supermutant maybe, hell, even a tree growing on his head would have been easier.... Instead, he was faced with the head of what could only be described as a bird, fur present all over his face, and a yellow beak.
He rubbed his visors, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, this action only resulted in another laugh from Minutemen, who looked at the helmet with a sad smile.
"I Know right? I couldn't believe in my fucking self at first when i saw my reflection... I guess that this place changed us more than we could ever tought...."
He continued to look at the other in shock, until he came back to reality and noticed in the combination of words of the companion.
"We....?"
The minutemen then in a sad smile as he took his eyes off his silver helmet, and slowly pointed at the back of the knight, where he then he followed the his eyes where the other was pointing, he only bulged his eyes even more.
With great hesitation, he brought his hand to his back, and touched and caressed it.
He felt, each touch and squeeze, the cold, hard metal material, He had a fucking wing.
And then still not believing what he was seeing before his own eyes, he with a tug, took out a feather.
He only let out a loud cry from the huge voltage of pain he felt throughout his body, it looked like he had done an amputation on a non-existent part of his body.
"Woah, woah! Don't do that, dammit!"
He then heard a noise of machinery working that he could easily recognize, it was the noise of someone coming out of a power armor.
Slowly looking he saw the Minutemen in his full body outside the armor, he was one who could only describe himself as a gryphon with a human anatomy, a body with back paws that could resemble a lion, and head and eagle arms.
Now he could see his companion much better, his head was silver with white spots and his body followed the same pattern, he used the colonial style field uniform that was worn by most minutemen, consisting of a baby blue button-up shirt with a tattered jacket with rolled sleeves worn over it with jeans and boots.
He quickly came towards him with a concerned look.
"The Wings are very sensitive, believe me, I know, learned that the hard way." he told with a chuckle while kneeling beside the Knight.
"You have to take very good care of them if you don’t want a huge inconvenience in the future." He told while losing his smile for a more concentrated look.
The Griffin Minutemen then slowly passed his hand over the other's fur, but this time it was different, with his claws he passed through different points of the wing, and in response he let out a groan, not in pain, but....
Satisfaction, which surprised and monumentally embarrassed him, making Minutemen unleash a knowing Smirk.
"Good right? That's the spot."
Not wanting to have his honor more tainted, he jerked and slapped the other's hands away.
"OI! That's enough!"
He was surprised by the aggressive reaction, and pulled away a little with his hands raised in a motion as if he surrendered.
"Wow, calm down pal, i just wanted to ease the pain."
He slowly looked at his wings, not before casting a threatening one under his helmet.
"I know...."
He got up and looked out over the horizon in deep tought.
"And i thank you for it.."
And slowly he would look back at the Minutemen.
"Even so, i think it's time for we to part ways.... Thanks for the assistance civilian."
He then slowly turned around and start walking towards basically the unknown, the Minutemen could only be surprised by this, and quickly dashed towards him and pulled him by his metal arm.
"Sorry bud... But i can't let ya...."
He then turned his visor over to the Minutemen narrowing his eyes.
"Was that a treat?"
The Minutemen slowly sighted.
"No bud, listen, i am here for more than a month, and I have explored everything around here, and there is not a shred of civilization in these parts.... Trying to explore will not get you anywhere."
The Knight then turned his entire body to face the Minutemen, clearly frustrated in his body language.
"And what do you want me to do? Stay here doing absolutely nothing waiting for a miracle? For the Brotherhood to come to me without even acknowledging my disappearance? Or that an answer falls from the sky??"
The Minutemen just make another long sigh, this time one of tiredness, and then he returned his face to match the one of the knight in defiance.
"No, I do not believe in miracles, but to go around alone in the unknown and with a hole new damn body, is as if you are begging to be killed..."
The Knight could only raise an eyebrow at this.
"And you are suggesting...?"
He then maintaining his neutral expression would continue.
"I Suggest that we stick together, i know you don't trust me, however, i think you would rather have somebody that know the things around here rather than walking blindly around."
The Knight of the Brotherhood looked again at the horizon for a moment and could only think at the minutemen's suggestion, he could be showing obvious signs of distrust, but he was here for a while, and he had some experiences with what could have happened to both of them even if just a theory, and he being sincere, was better to be stuck with a sarcastic Minutemen than with a Psycho Raider.
With a grunt, he faced the Minutemen again.
"I Find you suggestion..... Reasonable, but make no mistake, betray me, and suffer the consequences."
Minutemen would just laugh at the threat and extend a hand (or claw) for a handshake.
"Then that's a Deal?"
The Knight then obliged, extending his hand and accepting the handshake.
"Deal...."
He nodded and grabbed the tip of his hat and pulled it slightly down while making a mocking bow after the handshake.
"My Name's Colonel Dean, but you can just call me Dean, this year's hottest gift for ya, what'cha name?"
The Knight would hesitate until he answered while doing a light punch in his chest doing the Brotherhood salute.
"Marcus... Knight Marcus..."

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                     Coursing a Thief                      
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Coursing a Thief
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....?"