"Get ready, if this guy is even half as tough as those executioners I guarantee that it won't be easy even with the two of us." Leviathan muttered silently, so Thoth wouldn't hear.
Zero nodded and looked at his opponent:
An Egyptian crown decorated his head, his face were that of an ibis. The animal symbol of the Egyptian god Thoth, it symbolized wisdom, as its sharp beak resembles a pen.
The torso was armored only in the chest area, an armor connecting to the Egyptian crown, painted golden and dark blue.
The abdomen was coated with a thin white rubber-like substance, and the greaves were a golden v-shaped armor.
Instead of boots were sharp bird-of-prey and razor-sharp claws.
His weapon was a beam scythe, a long shaft that emanated a long curved blade from a rectangle device attached to the top of the shaft.
Thoth's eyes were glowing gold, which gave him an even eerier look.
Zero was ready and willing with his beam saber, and Leviathan was grasping her battle staff tightly.
Thoth charged at them, his scythe raised and ready to strike.
Zero was ready to act, as soon as Thoth tried to cleave at him jumped in the air, slashed Thoth's upper back with his saber and leaped as far away as he could as Thoth tried to slice him in two with his scythe.
But while Thoth was busy with Zero Leviathan thrust her battle staff at him and hit him square between the shoulder blades, the sharp edge of her staff didn't pierce Thoth as she intended and in an instant Thoth jabbed her in the face with the bottom of his scythe and she got thrown back a couple of feet away from Thoth's sheer strength.
Zero studied Thoth carefully; their attacks haven't even produced a scratch mark on Thoth's armor.
Thoth seemed to be studying Zero as well, but Zero wouldn't give him that much. He blitzed him before he could move and while jumping in the air he stretched his leg and booted him in the chest.
Thoth lost his balance and stumbled backwards where Leviathan who managed to get up tripped him.
A second before Thoth hit the floor he disappeared and reappeared next to Zero, punching Zero's face, and causing him to fall backwards and slide a meter or so on the floor.
"How did he...?" Leviathan barely managed to ask before Thoth yet again disappeared and reappeared next to her.
She gasped and was about to slam her staff into him but he was too quick and caught her by her neck, he then threw her across the room and into the wall seemingly knocking her out.
Zero meanwhile got up and charged up his shield boomerang. He threw it at Thoth but Thoth disappeared again and reappeared behind Zero.
Zero whirled around to kick Thoth but Thoth disappeared and his own shield boomerang hit the bewildered Zero because Thoth distracted him and he didn't pay any attention to it.
Zero fell face forward and heard a beam weapon power up behind him. He quickly rolled sideways to avoid a fatal hit by Thoth's scythe and blocked the second hit with his beam saber.
They stared at each other's eyes a power struggle ensued. Thoth had the advantage but Zero had to admit even without an advantage Zero could feel that Thoth was stronger than him. He was fighting a losing battle.
Thoth managed to push Zero's beam saber to his throat when suddenly something blasted him on the side and he flew across the room.
"Oh no you don't!" Aztec Falcon exclaimed.
"Aztec Falcon, what are you...?" Zero asked.
"I called him here, he'll help us." Leviathan said and helped Zero up.
"Are you okay master Zero?" Aztec Falcon asked with a great amount of respect in his voice.
"Yes thank you very much, he's too strong. All of our attacks didn't even scratch his armor!" Zero said.
"Wait a minute..." Leviathan said, "Fire on ice, ice on lightning and lightning on fire." She mumbled, Zero immediately understood. But he didn't have any of his elemental chips installed at the moment. But then he realized.
"Falcon, you're lightning! That's why you managed to blow him away." Zero said.
Thoth also understood this and was about to charge at Aztec Falcon when Zero blocked him and received a very painful punch in the face from Thoth.
"Leviathan protect Falcon!" he yelled as he tried to slice Thoth in retaliation.
"Right!" Leviathan acknowledged and stood next to him with her staff ready.
Thoth disappeared again and reappeared next to Falcon.
Leviathan punched Thoth before he could attack Falcon and Falcon blasted him with his electric attack, blowing him into a wall.
"Finish him!" Zero yelled, wiping the red fluid that ran out from his mouth.
Falcon was about to fire another electric blast but just before he could Thoth disappeared and punched Leviathan's face.
Thoth powered up his axe and tried to cleave at Falcon but Falcon ducked and punched Thoth in the abdomen, after all of the blows that Thoth had received his armor finally gave and Falcon's wing pierced his torso.
Thoth looked down in sheer terror and then back at Falcon, shaking his head as if begging Falcon not to destroy him.
Falcon chuckled and nodded tauntingly and then fired a final electric attack at Thoth who blasted in a brilliant orange explosion.
A fire chip fell on the floor and Zero picked it up,
"This could be handy."
"Great job Falcon, Harpuia would be proud. I'll tell him when he wakes up." Leviathan congratulated Falcon and pet Falcon's beak.
Zero went forwards and said, "Thank you Falcon, we couldn't have done it without you."
"Thank you Zero, you were great. I was honored to fight by your side." Falcon said.
Suddenly the ground started shaking.
"The pyramid is caving in!" Zero said.
"Operator?" Leviathan said to her comm. And all disappeared with a white flash.
The three were back in Neo-Arcadia. The operators who watched the battle all applauded and congratulated them, especially Falcon who Zero thought deserved it.
As Falcon went to visit Harpuia Leviathan escorted Zero back to his quarters.
"Was it me or was Falcon nice to me?" Zero asked.
"Yes he was." Leviathan answered with a smile, still thinking about the battle. She fought against Zero but never with him. She thought he was great; he was smart he had plenty of tricks and was completely unafraid.
"Odd... if someone would have destroyed me I wouldn't be so nice to him." Zero said and made Leviathan laugh.
"Oh Falcon is just so devoted to Harpuia that he doesn't care. If Harpuia thinks you should be a guardian than Falcon would treat you as he treats us." Leviathan explained.
"I see... there is something about that Thoth that confused me." Zero stated, "He could disappear and reappear elsewhere, did he short distance teleported?" he asked.
"No, he stopped time." Leviathan said.
"But if he could stop time than why didn't he just stopped it completely and destroyed us while we were frozen?" Zero inquired with curiosity.
"I assume because it was a short term time freeze and he had to charge it every time so he couldn't use it like that." Leviathan said thoughtfully.
They reached Zero's quarters, Zero shook Leviathan's hand and said,
"It was a pleasure to work with you on my first mission as a guardian Leviathan. I hope that we will fight side by side again soon. It is a refreshing change from fighting each other." Leviathan beamed at him and mentioned,
"You should use the personal repair station. You're a mess."
"I will, how I look is nothing to how I feel." Zero replied there was nothing he could say about her. Even in her worn and filthy state she was still beautiful.
"Well, tomorrow morning we'll go on the second mission so rest up," Leviathan said and left.
Zero entered his quarters and closed the door; he looked at himself in the mirror;
Leviathan was right, he was a mess his hair was filthy and untidy, his face were stained with his 'blood' and he was full of dirt.
He entered the repair station that once again fixed him and cleaned his armor and then dried his hair.
He stepped down from the capsule brushed his ponytail with his hand.
He went to his bed and looked up at the picture frame.
He pulled up from inside of his boot a folded drawing of his that Aluette made him.
"Here Zero! I made this for you." She said enthusiastically and gave him a drawing.
It looked like him but was scribbled and very out of scale and some parts like his hands and legs were just sticks.
He smiled and placed it in the picture frame. The picture then magnified so that the drawing was big enough to fit the frame.
Zero fell on his bed; he fell asleep without even removing his armor.
Meanwhile at somewhere unknown...
"Thoth has failed, but they needed to be three in order to take him down." Daemon said.
The golden clad reploid chuckled and said,
"And Whirlpool's reploid, is he ready?" he asked.
"Yes, she is just fitting him with all he needs." Daemon answered.
"It's good that our generous master grants us those powerful reploids so we can shape them as we please." The reploid said.
"Yes he creates them as plain reploids so we can make them look and be exactly as we want them to be. He builds the foundations and we build the building itself." Daemon said.
"Tell Vulture to start working on his reploid right now. Master can't stand delays." The reploid ordered.
"He has already started, he is working feverishly on it. He didn't use the facilities yesterday because he was too busy working on it." Daemon reported.
"Good, dismissed." The golden reploid said and Daemon left the room.
"We won't disappoint you master." He said to no one in particular and left into the shadows.
To be continued...