This story was started long before I knew that Neo Arcadia was destroyed in MMZ4. Instead of changing the location to Area Zero, I kept Neo Arcadia around as it was more defendable. I am also purposely not telling you the crossover for story telling reasons.
Disclaimer on bottom.
The sound of a claxon ripped through Neo Arcadia's core. Leviathan was the only guardian available at the time; the other two had gone to investigate a meteor crash about one hundred miles out side the city walls. The operators already had the transerver ready with coordinates set.
"Hostile creatures have been detected in one of the human-only sectors. The pantheons have proven ineffective against them," the operator informed Leviathan.
Leviathan twisted her head around and looked straight at the operator. "What do the creatures look like?"
"The pantheons have not yet been able to get any pictures. They have been falling too quickly," the operator said without changing her expression.
"Biological creatures are overwhelming an attack force made up of robots?" Leviathan said, in complete shock.
"Should we send in a few mutos reploids?" The operator suggested to Leviathan.
"No, I want to see this new enemy, then decide the action. Transfer me to the site now," Leviathan ordered, and walked onto the transerver's node.
The streets of this sector were deserted. All the well-built houses were torn to pieces and broken glass was scattered across the streets. It was giving Leviathan a sick feeling. Were all the humans dead? That thought was put to rest when she saw some humans begin to come out of hiding. Her presence reassured them; all the guardians had a reputation of being very protective of humans.
"SSKKREEE." The sound caught Leviathan's attention immediately. The humanss rushed back to their hiding places. Leviathan spied a floating creature in the air, although how it maintained its altitude, Leviathan had no clue. Its main body was composed of a soft material and reminded Leviathan of a jelly fish. Inside the body was what looked like a primitive brain and where the tentacles of the jelly fish would be, were two long, sharp, and probably very painful, fangs, as well as a smaller set closer to the front. Was this the creature responsible for eliminating the pantheons? It didn't give the impression of being something that would be a threat to a reploid or any other robot…
It made a dive, maw first, at Leviathan, who dodged the swipe by ducking and letting it fly over her head. "KKWRWR." It smacked into a solid wall and sputtered around. It turned around and faced Leviathan again. Leviathan could somehow tell it wasn't happy. "SSSSCCCCRRREEE" It lunged at her. Leviathan leaped into the air to again avoid the attack. While Leviathan was still in the air, out of the corner of her eye she saw a green streak coming at her. With a reflexive swing of her staff, she sent the new participant of the battle flying.
"Oh no…" Leviathan groaned as she saw more and more of the creatures filling the air. "Right now I wish I could trade places Fefnir!"
She stabbed at one of the creatures. The creature recoiled away seemingly undamaged. That was when they all decided to attack. Leviathan's evasions looked like a complex and chaotic dance. One of the creatures managed to trip her while another went in for the kill, clamping onto her head, and sinking both long fangs into the sides of her neck.
Leviathan now knew how the creatures could harm reploids: they drain energy! Leviathan muffled cries of dismay and despair. In her panic, she tried everything to get the leech off. Nothing worked until she used a freezing attack. The draining stopped that very second. the creature was thrown off due to her flailing, and -- shattered! The thing had been frozen by one simple attack!
Leviathan stood staring at the pile of crushed ice. She now knew what to do. The creatures also now knew what they had to do as well.
Leviathan, in her rush, yelled into her comm, "Send all ice elemental combat reploids to my location immediately! Tell them to be ready to use freezing techniques … aurgh!" Another one of the creatures latched onto Leviathan. She froze it and shattered it against a building. The creatures were now swarming around Leviathan, her deep blue eyes getting larger as she realized that if help did not arrive quickly enough, she would be drained to the point of death.
As the battle got more and more out of control and her energy level continued to drop, Leviathan tried to defend herself by making a dome of ice to protect herself. However, the creatures smashed right through and plowed Leviathan down. She had no more strength to fight even if she had the will. Leviathan lay motionless as the creatures continued to suck her energy away.
"GGGGRRRHHHAAA, leave Miss Leviathan alone!" A giant mutos reploid polar bear stomped in front of Leviathan, driving the creatures back. Reinforcements had arrived! The next reploid on the scene dropped an energy container next to Leviathan and motioned her to use it.
Leviathan absorbed the contents and was back in action. "Use your freeze techniques on them. It will make them brittle and vulnerable."
"Yes, Ma'am!" all the reploids responded synchronously.
"GAH!" A yell came from behind Leviathan. She turned just in time to see a reploid girl finished off by one of the creatures. It immediately increased in size and turned its attention on another reploid.
Now the creatures seemed serious, their attacks became more organized. One would distract while another would attack. Even with this burst of strategy, the creatures were losing fast; some even started to flee the battle.
"Keep going! They're starting to break ranks!" Leviathan encouraged her soldiers. A few of the creatures spotted and rushed a nearby human. The ice guardian was not about to let that happen! She blocked the creature's attack with her body. The creature couldn't care less weather it got a reploid or a human, and latched onto her, starting to rip Leviathan's energy away. Leviathan froze it and crushed it under her heal. The creature had taken a decent chunk of energy from her. She felt and weak and groggy. "Go hide…" she told the boy behind her. Her exhaustion was very apparent in her voice.
The creatures decided to bug out, and headed for the walls of the city. Leviathan's soldiers kept on them until they were sure every single one had fled.
Leviathan approached one of the frozen creatures that had not been shattered and picked it up. She encased the creature in even more ice, turning it into a very solid sphere of ice.
"Miss Leviathan, may I ask, what are you doing?" a nearby combat reploid asked.
"I want to know what this thing is, what it can do, and where it came from, so I'm taking it in for research," Leviathan replied calmly. She had changed much since the destruction of Copy X. A few years ago, she might have reprimanded and punished the reploid for not minding his own business.
Leviathan was made from the modified plans of X, as were her fellow guardians. They had all been hand-trained and taught by him. When Copy X came into power, Leviathan was devastated. She had no clue of the fact that he was an imposter. Leviathan followed the fake's orders, her loyalty to the original still driving her; however, her loyalty was destroying her. When Zero destroyed Copy X, she was infuriated with him, until both the original X and Ciel explained what happened, and she started to revert back to her true self.
"Everyone, start searching out the survivors. Operator, transfer me to Neo Arcadia Science Center." Leviathan heard a hesitating breath from the operator and knew immediately what she was worried about. "I'll return for repairs after I deliver this to Ceil. I don't want this thing thawing while I'm unconscious on the table."
Leviathan disappeared and reappeared suddenly in the main hall of the building, and made a dead run towards Ceil's facility.
Ceil startled the second Leviathan walked in. She turned to see the damaged guardian. "Leviathan?"
"I need your help. A swarm of these things assaulted the human district and were just barely repelled. Now, I know this is not your area of expertise, but you're the only genius I know." Leviathan was still a bit winded as she pleaded with Ceil to help.
"Sure, I'll try, but…" Ceil was worried about Leviathan's condition and it showed on her face.
"Don't worry about me. Just make sure that this thing is kept in cold storage." Leviathan advised, before transferring away.
Back at Neo Arcadia's core, Leviathan was hastily taken to the repair room. Although she had regained some of her energy, she had still lost some in the battle afterwards. The first thing on the maintenance reploids' list was to get her energy back to safe levels, then they could worry about the puncture wounds.
"Leviathan, what did you get yourself into this time?" one of the maintenance reploids asked, probing one of the puncture wounds as carefully as he could. It still made Leviathan wince.
"I'd rather not talk about it…" Leviathan spoke wearily.
"Sure, fine, just relax…" the maintenance reploid spoke softly as he plugged an energy conduit into Leviathan.
An hour passed before the claxon sounded again, startling everyone. "Not again…" Leviathan groaned and tried to get up, but, instead, in the process collapsed onto the floor. The maintenance reploids assisted her in getting up.
"Your energy reserves are only half full now. Avoid losing any more if you can," the maintenance reploid who caught her spoke. "I wish I could of taken care of your injuries."
"Don't worry about it," the blue guardian reassured him as she headed for the control room.
Everyone stared at the still-damaged reploid girl. Leviathan ignored the stares. "What is the emergency this time?"
"The Science Center is under attack by these creatures." The operator pointed to a nearby screen. On it were several images of bipedal, bug-like monsters. They varied in size, shape, color, and equipment. "They seem to be intelligent and well organized. They're incredibly resilient to our weapons and it appears that they have energy weapons of their own. We've sent in several pantheon platoons, only to have them rapidly destroyed."
"Keep sending in the pantheons, and start sending in combat reploids as well. Transfer me to battle." Leviathan ordered.
Leviathan appeared in Ceil's lab just at the right time to see the creatures drag Ceil out of the room… and to receive a blow to the back of the head.
"Ow…" Leviathan moaned, sprawled on the ground from the blow. She recovered quickly enough to dodge a blast from the creature.
"Send reinforcements! We've hit a sensitive spot! This must be where they're keeping the Metroid!" the monsters had a three digit claw, and around what could be guessed as a wrist was a black device it was speaking into. If one were not looking for it, it would have easily passed as part of the monster.
"You are going to regret striking me, bug face," Leviathan growled at the creature.
The creature looked amused at Leviathan's anger. "A weak human female thinks she can take on me?" After that statement, the creature erupted into its own form of laughter, which would put a chill down any normal human spine. Leviathan was neither normal nor human. In a flash of rage transformed her staff into a spear and dove it into bipedal bug. Its green blood sprayed all over the floor, and some entrails hung off the tip of her staff. She raised her high-heeled foot and pressed it against the creature's chest to and force it off her spear. Leviathan spun around to follow the creatures that had taken Ciel. Half-way to the door, three shots connected with her back.
She turned back, expecting to see another creature, only to see that the monster she had impaled was still alive. Leviathan sent a homing dagger at the creature's neck, relieving the bipedal bug of its head. I'll have to make sure that from now on I don't turn my back to them until I'm sure they are dead, Leviathan noted to herself.
She left Ciel's lab to enter the main hall where the major battle was. Though she couldn't see Ciel anywhere, she did see a giant mutos reploid polar bear who needed her help. It was the same one who had helped her during the last battle. several of the bipedal bugs were clinging to it like large ticks and slashing away at the beast's metal hide. The water guardian launched a wave of ice crystals directly at the monsters' harassing the mutos. Each crystal found its mark and knocked the creatures off the metal bear. While the bugs were on the ground, the bear took it upon himself to smash each one's head into the floor.
"Bulleg, did you see where the creatures took Ciel?" Leviathan called to the mutos reploid.
With out turning to face Leviathan the giant bear relpoid swung his arm and pointed behind himself. "They took Miss Ciel that way…" The bear spotted something out of the corner of his eye: a shadow was about to pounce on Leviathan. "Behind you!"
Leviathan reacted swiftly, but also gracefully. She kicked hard off the floor into a back flip, landing behind her attacker. Mid-flight she had transformed her spear into a dagger, which she used now to decapitate the would-be assassin. "Thank you for the heads up!"
"Miss Leviathan, be careful! Some of these bugs are invisible to the naked eye. They appear not to be able to shoot, but they have energy bayonets. They're not as dangerous as beam sabers but still do a high amount of damage," Bulleg warned as he charged into another group of humanoid bugs.
Leviathan nodded and raced down the hall to where she was hoping that she would find Ciel. She turned the corner and saw the condition the corridor was in. The lights had been knocked out and several of the ceiling tiles were missing. It screamed ambush, and if those creatures did have a stealth division, they were the ones waiting for her here. But Leviathan didn't have time to be careful. She charged full ahead as fast she could. The trap delayed in springing just long enough for Leviathan to get halfway across. Several large "clangs" sounded behind and in front of the ice guardian. Leviathan tried to dodge around where she thought the enemy was, judging from the sounds. The plan would have worked if she hadn't been clothes-lined by one of the invisible combatants. Leviathan fell hard onto her back and slid a distance. Her attacker didn't like to waste time and stabbed her in the stomach with its energy bayonet. Instead of trying to drive the blade in farther, it threw the hapless guardian into a pack of its comrades. The creatures didn't hesitate to unleash a wave of blows.
Leviathan broke free of her attackers. She was bleeding badly. None of the attacks had hit anything critical yet, but if this kept up it wouldn't matter. What a time to not have infrared vision, Leviathan thought. She could hear them approach, laughing at her… one slow step after another. That's when a plan hit the clever guardian's mind. The mischievous grin on Leviathan's face could not be missed.
Leviathan slammed the tip of her staff into the floor, sending a wave of ice streaking across it. The assailants, who were not smart enough to leap over the wave, had their feet frozen to the floor. The ones that were smart enough, discovered how slippery the ice was. It gave Leviathan an opening to use one of her strongest attacks.
Raising the staff over her head, Fairy Leviathan prepared to summon her ice dragons. The invisible assailants stared in disbelief as Leviathan started to glow and spun her staff over head. Two ice dragons started to form around her, spinning wildly. "Go… to… Cockroach … HELL!" Once she finished that statement, both dragons charged in different directions. Screams of fear, dread, and death, erupted as the ice dragons made short work of their mistress' enemies. "Weak female human indeed…" Leviathan said, with a little amusement.
Leviathan ran as fast as she could with a limp. Being still charged from her attack, she could launch an ice dragon at will, now, if she needed to. That last battle had delayed her so much that she was worried, now, whether or not she would arrive on time to save Ciel. The hall where she was opened up quite a bit compared to the last one. It had a glass roof, and was rather high up, It would have been perfect for Harpuia if he had been there.
Something crashed through the glass roof, sending shards down onto the guardian. Leviathan shook the glass off and turned to face her new challengers. I… Ciel doesn't have time for this! I've got to end this quick, Leviathan thought. The creatures had some sort of jet packs that allowed them to stay afloat. Leviathan was about to go on the offensive when the monsters attacked first, firing missiles that homed in on the ice guardian. "Missiles!" Leviathan's eyes just about popped out of their sockets. Where are they getting their technology?
The first two missiles she dodged easily, even getting out of the blast radius. The third one's explosion threw her, and the fourth found its mark. Leviathan let out a pain-filled cry as the missile buried into her abdomen and then exploded. She lay flat against the floor. It hurt. It seemed as if those missiles were designed to take down tanks. Leviathan was tough, but not that tough. For all the wear and tear she had already gone through, she should have died right then, but she managed to persevere. If she tried to get up now, though, the creatures would launch another volley before she was even on her feet. Leviathan would have to wait until she had enough strength to burst up quickly.
The two monsters landed next to the wounded guardian, looking her over. Leviathan prayed that they would leave her for dead, or a least didn't do anything to her. The creatures started cackling, chirping, screeching, and growling, to each other. To Leviathan's surprise, her automatic translator kicked in.
After collecting enough samples, it played back the translated conversation; "It's a robot? A robot that bleeds?"
"Apparently so. It's also modeled after the human females. Think the human female Commando - AR4 has is also a machine like this one?"
"If so, it's not as dangerous. Must be because it was modeled for research. Shouldn't be long until we've retrieved the metroid."
Leviathan now had enough strength to get up and attack. She snapped both eyes open and leaped to her feet, startling both monsters. "It lives? That was more than enough to put the hunter out of commission!"
"Yeah, well, I don't know who this 'hunter' is, but you got one really ticked guardian on your hands," Leviathan growled at her adversaries.
Both bugs took to the air immediately. The one that had spoke fired a servo of missiles at the ice guardian, hoping to down Leviathan the same way it had before. "That is not going to work twice." Leviathan pointed her staff at the aerial monster, causing an ice dragon to charge through, the missiles, deflecting them from their intended target and ripping through the hapless creature. Green blood and entrails spewed everywhere, coating the walls, and floor.
The remaining bug looked at Leviathan, looked at the mess that was once his comrade. "Screw this!" the bug spat, and shot threw the glass roof.
Leviathan was about to call angrily at the deserting monster but a pain filled scream caught her attention. OH NO, CIEl! Hang on, I'm coming! Leviathan was angry with herself for forgetting the scientist. She tried to push herself to run as fast as she would normally would have if she weren't damaged -- not a healthy thing to do for someone in her condition.
"Unlock the door now and maybe I'll reconsider not painting the walls with your blood." One of the monsters had more cybernetic implants then the others. Its body had been heavily modified and gave the impression that it was superior to the others. It had been beating Ciel into cooperation and was getting petty tired with the girl's defiance.
Ciel managed to get back up, glaring at the bipedal bug. "I'm not scared of you."
"Oh, I see. You think you're indispensable because you're the only one who knows how to unlock the door. Well, for your information, mutt, since we've located the metroid, a demolition squad will be here shortly if you don't cooperate. See, little rodent, opening that door is your only chance of survival…" The humanoid bug was interrupted by Ciel.
"That door is five feet thick and built with one of the strongest alloys around. Good luck on blowing it up." Ciel's defiant glare continued.
The commanding bug raised his claw to strike Ciel again, but at that moment one of the two subordinate creatures caught the commander's claw and alerted it of someone approaching. Ciel heard the clatter of metal high heels approaching. She immediately knew who had came for her.
Leviathan rounded the corner and spotted Ciel and her captors. They exchanged glares: Leviathan, examining Ciel's condition and sizing up her opponents; the bugs, sizing up Leviathan, trying to figure out what she was; and Ciel; realizing what bad shape Leviathan was in.
"Just for my report when this is over and done with… what are you creatures?" Leviathan asked the monsters.
"You can call us Space Pirates. That is the name the Galactic Federation gave us." The commander walked forward a distance. "Although. I doubt it will really matter that much to you when you have a blade lodged in your neck… I'd ask what you are, but we'll find out when we dissect your remains…" Then speaking in his native tongue to his two subordinates, "Kill her."
I only have two dragons left, I had better make them count, Leviathan thought to herself. Leviathan swung the staff twice, sending two ice dragons at her opponents. Both lower rank pirates screamed as the dragons ripped them to pieces. However, when the commander saw the two dragons headed his way he leaped onto the back of one and waited for the other to come at him. The space pirate dodged out of way the of the oncoming ice dragon, causing both dragons to be destroyed.
"Heh, nice trick. You almost impressed me," the space pirate mocked Leviathan. Instead of replying, Leviathan gripped her staff even tighter. She was in no condition to handle a long drawn-out fight, but that's what this battle looked like it was going to be.
The space pirate leaped forward and tried to stab Leviathan with its bayonet. Leviathan side-steped and swiped at the space pirate. The monster backed off and started firing its energy weapon at Leviathan, who evaded then kicked off a nearby wall to gain some altitude. She shot ice crystals rapidly in the space pirate's direction. The space pirate took several direct hits before drawing out some sort of energy shield. It reminded the ice guardian too much of Zero's boomerang shield.
Leviathan landed next to Ciel, fired off some homing daggers, and turned her head so that she could see Ciel out of the corner of her eye. "Go find a place to hide! You're too much of a distraction out… AARRUUGGGHH!" Leviathan was nailed with the space pirate's bayonet in the same area where she had been nailed by the missile. The bipedal bug threw her across the room where she landed hard. Leviathan struggled to get back to her feet, but the space pirate was on her before she could get up. His claw was wrapped tightly around her neck.
"Let's see how much more pain you can take before you die," the sadistic creature hissed at Leviathan as it stabbed at the missile wound repeatedly. Leviathan cried in pain, struggling to break the creature's grasp. Leviathan kneed the arm with the bayonet out of the way, placed both feet firmly on the pirate's chest, and kicked off, breaking its grip.
She landed not too far away in a kneeling position. Her left leg gave out under her, forcing her to use her left arm to keep herself off the ground. The ice guardian knew she was about to die, if not from the enemy in front of her, then by the wounds she had sustained. Leviathan had to finish this battle now for Ciel's sake. There was no way she would allow a human to die on her watch.
"I'm not like those grunts you faced earlier. I was trained to 'hunt the hunter'. I am a pirate commando," the pirate boasted.
Leviathan managed to get back to a standing position. "My carelessness may cost me my life… but I will not let it cost a human theirs." Leviathan transformed her staff into a spear and lunged at the bug, putting the staff through the bug's head. She let go of her staff and let the pirate fall to the ground with her staff still planted.
Her legs gave out one last time and she tumbled hard onto her back. She turned her head to see Ciel, still standing by the security door, trembling. "Ciel, get the creature I gave you… take it to…" Those were the last word she said before fading away.
Disclaimer: Mega Man Zero characters, locations, etc. belong to Capcom. Nintendo characters, locations, etc. belong to Nintendo.
Edit: I dropped the rating do to the fact that other stories on this site have similar violence levels but are only rated T. I'm unsure if this level is safe or not, so if you review, please let me know.