(23 hours later)

(Catton castle)

"So your scouts came to this 'settlement' and saw these creatures?" The Zebra king asked to which the panther king nodded while his ally looked over the copy of the scouts' draws of the 'metal beasts' that roamed the settlement.

"I did... thought you should know of this too old friend," Damian stated to which the Zebra nodded before Damian grabbed his wine glass and took a sip. "But I want you to take a look at that one right there... the two-legged one.

Placing a piece of paper of one of the three-legged and three-legged metal squid the zebra king picked up an image of the scouts called 'the figure'. Turning to the symbol at the side of the being helmet the Zebra squinted his eyes at the symbol, a star that sat inside a circle.

"Does that symbol mean anything to you?" Damion asked to which Xavier shook his head.

Looking up from the image to the cat-furred cat that sat beside the small table that divided their chairs.

"I've seen many star symbols before but none like this... this one is simple but it almost looks like something from the equestrian military ranks or something similar. Perhaps Lunar guard?"

"Doubtful... Our newest 'neighbor' isn't Equestrian didn't even allow the Diplomate of Somnambula to come to close before blowing off his legs," Xavier flinched at that but the king was total that the scouts did warn the foolish pony of the clear warnings that their 'neighbor' laid out and reminded them of the incident with Capper.

"Still it seems our 'friend' has no love for Equestria... at least we have something in common with them,"

"We don't know that quite yet my friend but we can't rule that possibility out either," Damion placed his wine glass down while Xavier took his own to sip from it.

Holding his chin the old cat began to think.

What could this settlement be?

Sell-swords? No, there only seemed to be one of them and from the scout's report, he didn't look well...

Wandering Mages? Most likely not there wasn't any magic from what the scout could tell which makes those metal beasts even more interesting.

Water Merchants? The water guilds aren't as rich as they once were many years ago doubtful they even have any equipment like what the settlement had.

Damion was so deep in thought he didn't feel the tug on his cub.

"I didn't hear you come up to me, little prowler! Come here... you wish to see the draws too?" Damion asked to which the young prince nodded.

"Mhm," Prince Salem said, the young panther cub looked up at his father while the Zebra king quietly chuckled to himself.

The panther smiled down at his cub before bringing down his arms to pick him up onto his lap and showing him a picture of one of the wheeled metal giants.

"What are these dad?" The prince asked.

"We don't know yet but they seem to be strong workers that can carry giant metal trunks bigger than you tirelessly," The King told his son to which the prince then spoke.

"They look scary," The Prince asked looking at the almost spider-like heads they had.

"Heh they do look a little scary but we shouldn't judge them... they might be hard workers buzzing around like bees in a hive," Damion said while Salem turned to Xavier.

"Uncle Xavie can I see that one?" Salem asked to which the Zebra king chuckled before handing the paper to the little one.

"Here you are little cub,"

"Whoooooa he looks cool," The prince was in awe at the image of 'the figure' and his metal eye friend that was supposedly supporting him up.

"That he does," Damion said while Salem turned to his father.

"Can we meet him?"

Damion looked at his son kinda surprised but Damion's question made him think for a moment.

"Perhaps... maybe... but he's kinda shy and doesn't like anyone coming too close to his home so we don't know how we could meet him," Damion told his son.

"But why?"

"Well little cub that is what your father and I are trying to figure out," Xavier told the young prince. "Our friend here usually stays in his metal hut with a fence around it and summons thunder to scare everyone away. So we can't really come up to his door and knock on it and meet him,"

"But why does he keep to himself?" Salem asked to which his father spoke.

"We don't know that either Salem... we are trying to figure out a way to contact him and speak with him at least once to find out his reason in No-Man's land," Damion stated to which Salem blinked.

"He lives in No-Man's land?" His father nodded.

"Whoa! He has to be super tough to live out there!" The prince stated to which the two kings chuckled.

"It sure does look like it," Damion said while looking down at the image of 'the figure'.

"Still need a way to contact him," Xavier spoke to which Salem looked up at his 'uncle' but began to think a moment before speaking.

"Oh! Why don't we get a giant sign and put it right outside his yard asking him so you can talk with him?"

The two kings looked at one another before Xavier spoke up.

"That's... not a bad idea,"

(Meanwhile)

Getting up from his 'nap' Six woke up stretched his arms and legs and gave a long yawn before dropping a hand on the back of his neck.

"Oh, man... that's what I needed," Six smiled feeling a lot better after closing his eyes for 'a bit'. "See ED-E all I need was a- ED-E? Buddy?"

Turning his head he saw at the foot of his bed like Rex used to do back at the Lucky 38.

"ED-E? You okay there buddy?"

The eye-bot shot up from sleep mode the Eyebot looked from each side of the room then to Six.

"*worried beeping*"

"Relax bud... I'm fine... as a matter of fact, I feel great!" Six rolled his neck before getting out of bed, ED-E rushed over to his side ready to catch his friend but the Courier stood up like what happened in the last four days didn't happen. "Man my legs! Hold on,"

Six moved from his bedside to stretch his legs from side to side before jumping onto his hands and stretching them in the air before dropping back down and smiling.

"I haven't felt like this in forever!" Six punched at the air before raising his arm up and sniffing. "WHOA! Yeah... definitely should have taken that shower before,"

"*Unmused beeping*"

"Hey, I said I was going to it in the morning..."

"*Sassy beeping*"

"Watch it ED-E I know where you recharge at night I can always remove your Sass drives,"

ED-E then gave the courier a light zap from his frame.

"OW! Okay!" Brushing himself off the courier and then walked into the bathroom in his house.

(15 minutes later)

Getting out of the warm shower, Six pushed open the shower door before walking up to the mirror.

Placing his clawed hand on the reflective surface he pushed his hand across it's surface to finally get a look at himself.

What he was wasn't at all recognizable.

Anything resembling a human was gone, replaced by what could be describe as a Big Mountian experiment gone way too far... more than usual.

Scales, Fur, Claws, and Venom-filled fangs...

He looked like a Nightstalker...

Holding the sink he never thought that splicing his DNA with a Nightstalker would do this to him... hell the Auto-Doc assured him that all he would have was a few minor changes for combat but nothing like this.

Well... at least he wasn't an over size Cazador-Man mutant like that one old pre-war.

Looking at his eyes the courier began to take a closer look at his face Six looked to see some small human features still remained. Some of his back teeth were still there in the back and his tongue was still there a little longer but not forked, his eyes were still the same blue color as before and his hair or rather fur fluff on his head was a darker color than his original stress grey colored hair almost a nice black color.

Six was glad that he didn't grow a super long muzzle for him to completely refit his riot helmet to insane measurements, but luckily the short muzzle only required small changes that ED-E could do it without a problem.

Thought his claws might be a problem...

Retractable yes but he was going to have to get a new glove for his right hand, not a difficult change just means he was going to be wearing to fingerless gloves now.

Six still wondered what could have caused this insane transformation in his DNA like this.

Could it have to do something with this world having 'magic'?

Maybe... until all this in his arrival to 'Equis' Six didn't believe in magic everything had an explanation.

Sleight of hand, miss direction, and technology that was advanced that it could have been mistaken for magic.

Still couldn't get over the 'Ghosts' of the Sierra Madre.

Looking at his butt to see if he had a tail (which he kind of did) his pip-boy gave a familiar ding sound effect.

'A perk?'

Looking down the Courier swapped over to the 'perks' in his pip-boy.

Mostly the perks referenced great physical changes to his body or skills he picked up...

But seeing how he was a human-shaped nightstalker this would count as a great physical change.

A lifetime in their shoes!

Due to your DNA splicing in a big mountain, your arrival in Equis has caused your body to rapidly mutate without warning and caused your Nightstalker DNA to branch out and rapidly evolve your body into what it is now!

Hey, at least your skin is covered in soft scales that can take bullets like kevlar, sharp eyes to help you spot out baddies, and claws and fangs with natural venom!

/+4 to DT, +1 PER, and +25% more unarmed damage/

*Image: Vault boy with fangs and cartoon-like scaly skin smiling with his arms out standing next to two Nightstalkers standing next to him*

Hissing, Six pulled his right hand to his mouth at how snake-like that sounded.

Groaning at how of course his pip-boy had to make fun of his misfortune like this again.

Exiting the bathroom the courier got to his fridge before opening it.

Seeing the root beer Six reached down and grabbed out.

Staring at the brown soda Six huffed for a moment before popping the cap off and moving it to his lips.

"*ALARMED BEEPING!*"

Nearly dropping the soda bottle from his hands Six turned to ED-E.

"What!? What happened!"

"*Angry beeping*"

"Wha- Oh... ED-E come on I doubt the soda caused this,"

"*Wary beeping*"

"Look this is just a soda as long as I don't have those pop-rock candies I wouldn't explode or anything," Drinking the soda ED-E ducked behind cover.

Seeing this the Courier lowered his drink.

"Really? Man I swear your such a drama queen,"

Turning away to get dressed ED-E popped up before selecting a record from his sound files and turning up the volume to the max before silently sneaking over to the courier from behind.

"/BOOM!!!/"

This time ED-E made the courier drop his soda on the ground before glaring at ED-E.

"/Crowd laughter/"

"That's it come here!"

Six then began to chase the Eye bot around the small little house hut that was their home all the while the moon began to rise up. While a group moved outside the warning signs from the base and a bunch of tool were laid out before the sound of saws and tails began to quietly echo though out the cold dry No-Man's land.

Author's Note

Okay, here you guys go!

Another one!

And to those who guess right about the Nightstalker mutation... treat yourselves to cookies!
(Like peanut butter or Chocolate chip or both whatever floats your boat guys)

I do hope you like this chapter!

BTW I did base the king and the prince off the IDW comics but gave them my own twist on things.

Also before you fire at me because Zebra king wasn't rhyming... well I SUCK at rhymes but my headcanon is mostly because not many people (outsiders) would understand him since he is a King and had to make his points clear enough to understand...

Plus to all you star wars fans... it's kinda the same thing here that the Twi'lek's accent in star wars, similar to Hera from Rebels (not a big fan but hey it gave us Maul and Vader vs Ahsoka)

See you in the next one guys, Peace.