Chapter 1: Reunion

The quiet evening of Nippon compelled most to seek shelters, in their homes they slept quietly, fathers tell tales of his work to his family. Not on the fields of terrace farming but in the factories, workshops of artisans or construction works in the city itself.

Mothers arrive home, with their bags full of groceries and food for the rest of the week. For the time being in Sei'an city, life seems mostly the same as it had been for thousands of years, but there were changes and modernity manifesting itself in the daily activities of the citizens.

But this evening was not one of relaxation and leisure for some others, inside a dark warehouse somewhere in the city's Commoner Quarter, two figures were busy at work going over a map of the city.

Next to them was an electric lamp to provide proper reading light over a wooden table and some chairs. The two were metallic beings, shiny chrome armor with reflective surfaces, their heads sport wolf ears and their heads were distinctively that of wolves. Their canid appearances were even more pronounced with stubby metal tails behind them.

Their bodies were rather large muscular almost like idealized sculpted figures of the legendary Herakles with armor plates sporting curvaceous forms of pectoral perfection on their torsos. Their abdomens were packing six packs that were covered in smooth armor plates.

They sported grey and silver color pixelated camouflage patterns on their plates and panels, on their backs, each one of them appear to be carrying a bullpup assault rifle with a foregrip in front and drum magazine attached to the lower receiver group, the weapon appeared to be a futuristic design of a FAMAS rifle but with laser dot sight in place of standard iron sight.

"So they're going for the Aristocratic Quarter. A hit job on the Prince of this Empire. Actionable intel?" The gruff male robot asked his partner, as they went over the details. "Affirmative Belisarius, our Scouts posted near the Aristocratic Quarters sighted suspicious movements around the gates of the quarters before. Several runners often rile up the guards and run away quickly. Testing the water so to speak." His partner, Arminius, replied as they looked at the entry points and gatehouses. They would approach via the rooftops and parkour.

"Then let's move, the time is getting close. We'll link up with the scouts and then move in on the Aristocratic quarter." Stated Belisarius as he then rolled the map up and placed it inside a round tube like canvas bag and zipped up the lid of the bag before heading out.

The two of them ran out of the warehouse, taking a leap into the air before landing hard on the rooftops of the city, the two then sprinted forward running over the rooftops running through the Commoners Quarters of the city. They ran with the incredible speed their robot bodies allow them but this only left their footsteps and damages on the rooftops of the more fragile houses.

They soon came to the edge of the Commoners Quarters where the Gojo bridge can be seen with the two palaces for Queen Himiko and the Emperor. "Ikaros come in, this is Herakles do you read us over?" Arminius tapped his right ear to dial up the communication relay to his allies in the city.

On the other end of the call were a pair of robot wolves lying down on their stomachs observing the area ahead of them with a spotter scope and the other one was wielding a large bullpup sniper rifle with a drum magazine firing .50 cal rounds, a rather strange design to say the least.

The rifle itself had a high tech rectangular scope with digital zooming function and multiple vision modes to scan for targets. "Ikaros here, reading you 5 by 5. We have seven, repeat seven tangos entered the area. Optical camouflage packing 5.56-ers and pineapples. Over." The robot wolf on observation relayed the information to his allies. "Affirmative Ikaros, thanks for the heads up. Let us know if you see anymore hostiles that we need to look out for." Arminius replied to them as he and Belisarius jumped over the city's canal and latched onto the wall, they engaged their magnetic paw pads and effortlessly climb the wall and hopped over.

The two landed down on the courtyard where they kept their eyes out of the enemy Optical Camouflage Troopers. They grabbed their weapons mounted on their backs and cocked the bolts, arming their weapons before moving out tactically scanning for threats. "Ikaros keep your eyes peel, we can't see everything." Belisarius stated to his sniper team as they came up closer to the nearby shrine within the courtyard.

The sniper team on the balcony of the nearby Pagoda switched on their FLIR thermal vision filtering the world through the scope of their weapon in a grey black and white thermal view, the sniper scanned the target area slowly trying to find his targets but they remained rather well hidden by their cloaking devices.

"No eyes on targets, repeat negative visual. Suggest you look out for enemy movements over." The sniper called out to them making Belisarius sighed out annoyed. The urgency of the situation required intel that's on time but here they were using guess works and hunches to hunt their foes.

As Belisarius and Arminius looked around and saw that there were signs of enemy movements in the area, bent grasses and flatten vegetations suggested enemy movements towards the Shrine.

"Of course, Arminius, follow me I think we found our assailants." Belisarius stated to Arminius as the two would then creep closer to the Shrine, eventually Belisarius noticed a silhouette in front of him, a transparent and somewhat outlined silhouette giving away a bulky form with round helmet.

"Contact! Enemies sighted to our front!" Belisarius shouted and stood up opening fire on the silhouette, the gunshot from his weapon sounded so loud that it shook the neighboring buildings awake and the startled the assassins. They in turn looked over and saw the two robot wolves and open fire on them, startled by their sudden presence.

The gunfire that erupted in the courtyard disabled their cloaking abilities and revealed their true appearances to the robot dynamic duo. "Hostiles detected, take the shot." The spotter robot ordered his shooter, who in turn heeded the order and exercise his initiative and open fired on the target.

His bullet traveled through the air changing its flight pattern as the wind interfered with it before slamming into the enemy fighter's back and exited on the other end splattering blood on the ground and shattering the body of the assassin in half.

The scuffle of course soon draw the attention of the guards in the city and palaces as they converge on the courtyard. They see two robots skirting around the courtyard. From within the shrine, Taiyou emerges surprised to hear the gunshots in the area that was supposed to be well guarded. He was wearing traditional dark blue Kimono robe for males with a flower and sun motif on it.

He saw that the two robot wolves were stomping the surviving Assassins on the ground with the one bearing the name Belisarius on his chest executing the last assassin without flinching. "Target neutralized, subject is secured." Said Belisarius on the coms to his sniper team before looking over to Taiyou's shock expression.

"What just happened here? Who are you and what have you done?" He asked confused seeing the sight of carnage before him and the intestines of the assassins hanging out of their bodies. "Stopping your death, young one. I can't stay here and explain. But know this, Anubis sends his regards." Said Belisarius as he stood up from the ground and turned his back to Taiyou along with Arminius as the two exited the courtyard. But Taiyou had one lead to follow on, Anubis…

[hr]

Dear mother and father,

Recently, something terrible nearly happened to me in Sei'an City. A group of assassins nearly murdered me while I was conducting a ceremony in the city's Shrine. Someone managed to save me in the process however and in the nick of time too.

They were two metal wolves, mechanical in nature obviously. They took down the assassins and left me a note to follow up on and they mentioned Anubis in it.

So in my haste to travel to Egypt again since the last time I visited it centuries ago, I write this letter to let you know of what happened and assure that I am well.

I will keep in touch soon when I learn of what has been happening.

Your loving son,

Taiyou

The sight of Alexandria appeared before his eyes once again since his previous visit of the city, he stepped out of the portal he had summoned and found himself in the Greek capital of Egypt, an oxymoron that few would dare to speak out loud.

The city was of course remained the same since he last seen it, a vibrant multicultural and multiethnic metropolis with the overarching Greek cultural dominion remain supreme.

At least this time, he had no worries of getting lost as he knew the city's layout like the back of his paw. He went out to the Northern end of the city towards the Royal Palace where he would no doubt find Anubis.

As he was taking a walk towards the Royal Palace however, he noticed something interesting in the crowds of pedestrian, someone was seen walking amongst the crowd. A pair of long canine ears protruding up above the crowd with a scepter planting on the ground. Not only that but the jet black color made Taiyou's heart jumped a beat when he saw the figure.

He knew who that was and he ran towards the person in question, pushing himself through the crowds of pedestrians of Greek populace before emerging with his hand reach out to what appeared to be Anubis. But his excitement soon faded when he realize the hand that he was grasping.

Cold metal, hard and smooth was all he felt, the color matched that of Anubis but the deity's appearance seemed off, he was mechanical with armor plates all across his body from top to bottom. Even the ears are now covered in metal. When Anubis turned his head to face Taiyou, the deity made a surprise grunt seeing the young prince of the Sun again.

"Taiyou? You're here awfully early there. I trust that the warriors I dispatched did their job well enough." Anubis said to Taiyou calmly but his voice came off somewhat grainy and synthetic, artificial and unnatural at time even though it somewhat captured the baritone and deep voice quality of Anubis that Taiyou knew from his youth. "W-what happened to you?" Taiyou asked weakly in fear upon seeing Anubis.

"This?" Anubis asked looking down at his robot body again noting the terrified reaction Taiyou had of him. "Something I've done for adaptation." Said Anubis in a blunt manner to Taiyou, he didn't seem phased and the answer he deliver only serve to make Taiyou felt like he wasn't the same deity he met when he was younger.

"Wh-at? How and what did you do to yourself? You're a r-robot by now, not even a God like I know you to be from before." Tayou protested and complained to Anubis as the two were walking on the streets of Alexandria with the mortals around them making way for them when the two came close while other mortals were simply too preoccupied with their own things to care.

"Long story short, I modified my body with cybernetics and robotic technological advancements. Now I can use Technomancy and ward off Hackers and malicious entities." He stated nonchalantly to Taiyou before looking down at his body again noticing the lack of fur and noticeable flesh, or rather the flesh that was buried underneath the armor.

"But at what cost?" Taiyou remarked at Anubis feeling displeased by the fact that Anubis didn't seem to catch the point that Taiyou was trying to make. "Let me guess… my humanity? My emotion that you fear lost to the metal body?" Anubis asked Taiyou hesitantly as he paused for a moment by an intersection of the city. "I know that you need the technological knowledge to develop and adapt. But must it come with you becoming THAT which you seek to control?" Taiyou asked painfully.

He noticed however that Anubis was standing still by the intersection's sidewalk, he glanced around trying to see what was happening as Anubis didn't seem to have interest in crossing the streets. "What are we waiting for?" Taiyou asked curiously looking back and forth.

"For my chauffeur." Anubis remarked nonchalantly, soon enough, Taiyou heard the rumbling sound of a vehicle engine coming towards them, he saw a Jeep came up to the street and stopped for them to board.

The vehicle appeared to be a yellow tan desert camouflage vehicle with a jerry can on its back and the wind shield rested on the hood of the vehicle. The driver was a robot jackal in digital desert camouflage, "Kept you waiting huh?" The driver asked Anubis half joking in an almost cocky voice.

"By 2 seconds late, have to make do with traffics of course." Anubis remarked in a rather easy manner apparently he didn't seem to be bothered by the margins of late arrival like a cold machine would be. "Come on Taiyou, since you're already here, I might as well show you what has been happening and what I've been working on." Taiyou nodded to Anubis and felt himself compelled to sit next to Anubis as the jeep rolled its wheels out of Alexandria.

The young white wolf with red markings saw that they were heading out of Alexandria heading to the South East along the Nile River to the area on the opposite side of lake Mareotis. The ruins of the Temple of Sekhmet on the island in the middle of the lake he once visited was still there and so was the settlement of Yamu marked by the Temple of Sekhmet.

He saw that the vehicle took a turn on its sand roads into a gated area with traffic cones and sandbag barricades forming its sturdy walls. Once he passed the gates, he came into a massive sprawling military base, at least to his eyes.

He saw semi-circle barracks with a parade ground in the middle where a flag was hoisted, a black flag with golden silhouette of Anubis's jackal head painted in gold flew high. Nearby he could see a helipad area where several sleek and angular helicopters with five blades on their main rotors and tail rotors were standing by. The helicopters appear to have some sort of muffler device attached to their rotors.

"Welcome to Fort Philopator, home of the Jackal Guards. We moved out from the Royal Barracks in the city to set up a new base that fits our methods." Said Anubis as he got off the jeep with Taiyou, he saw that the place had helicopters flying in and out by the hours with some being strange VTOL like crafts that had sleek and angular forms and quadcopter design to haul heavy cargos. "New methods? This place is full of robots and machines." Taiyou said in a perplexed manner.

He saw that the base was manned and operated by robots, all of whom were anthropomorphic wolves or jackals. They sported rather muscular athletic build for the most part with shiny chrome armor on them. On their chest they had serial code numbers painted on them with their rank insignias. CLU, CLU-I, were what he saw for the most part.

"I'm sure you're aware of the development in mechanical warriors and their implementation on the battlefield. Well… I started it." Anubis replied stoically to Taiyou as he walked with the prince of the Sun in the base towards the hangar area in front of an obstacle course and demolition training area. "I do but…" He replied but then grew hesitant to speak more.

"Well anyway point is, I was looking for you to thank you for saving my life. It's odd for me to see you sent robot wolves to do the job but I thank you nevertheless." Said Taiyou in a more focused tone, he extended his arm out to Anubis waiting for his reaction.

Much to his pleasant surprise, he would see that Anubis shaking his hand back, apparently he wasn't completely lost. "No problem with it. Just doing my job Taiyou. I could introduce you to the one who planned it, but I must warn you though. He is shall we say… a bit dense?" Anubis hesitated for a moment before leading Taiyou towards one of the hangar there, the two could hear the muffled grunting and groaning sounds coming from within, followed by smacking and punching sounds and mechanical whirring of actuators and hydraulics.

As the metal doors slide open and the sun lights penetrated into the metal interiors of the hangar, Taiyou saw a dojo of sort where several still flesh and blood Jackal warriors were seen fighting something.

A robot he could tell but one that was shorter than the others of Anubis's army, unlike the colors of grey, silver or tannish desert brown and yellow camouflage. This one appeared to have blue chrome color on his body.

His wrists, hands and legs were jet black while his body had tan chrome color and a pair of red LED optics. On the back of its head were a quartet of black dreadlocks connected to one another in segments.

"This one feels...different somehow," Taiyou said, surprise coloring his voice. "I can tell, there's something else about him."

"Indeed." Anubis remarked as the strange robot launched a high kick with his leg reaching up to absolute verticality smacking into the face of one jackal warrior behind him. He then made a jump into the air and flipped behind said warrior before kicking him in the back.

"He's definitely notably stronger from what I can see, but I doubt that's just it." Taiyou mused, having a pretty good feel of how Anubis think from all those years back.

"Yes he is. Stronger and smarter, more so than his peers for good reasons. But I have yet to help him find a way to socialize." Said Anubis as he watched the robot Lucario jabbing one of the jackal warrior in his chest before judo throwing him against his comrades.

"Flawless Victory." Anubis declared in a deep grumble, the robot Lucario would then walk up to Anubis and Taiyou, it suddenly knelt down and bowed its head before the two. "I am at your service Lord Anubis." the robot stated politely in its monotonous voice.

"At ease young one. Taiyou, this is Leandros, the robot who planned the operation saving your life. Leandros, this is Taiyou." Anubis introduced the two to one another with Leandros standing up to look at Taiyou in the eye. "It is an honor to meet you Prince of the Sun." He spoken softly to Taiyou.

"The honor is mine. I owe you my thanks." Taiyou said with a friendly smile.

"Taiyou I will leave you with Leandros here then, he'll show you around, I'll need to gather some additional intel on the assassination attempt on your life." The Jackal spoken calmly to Taiyou, he bidded the young wolf a good bye nod before exited the hangar followed by the Jackal Warriors tired and bruises by the fight they had endured. "Malaka! That michanikó koutávi (Mechanical puppy) is going to be the death of me." One of the warriors groaned painfully with an ice pack on his face as he left the hangar.

Leandros would then climb out of the dojo steadily by flipping upside down above the ring's rope and landed on his feet gently before Taiyou. "Follow me, there's something Lord Anubis wishes to give you first." Leandros spoken monotonously but the insight he provided to Taiyou intrigued him.

The robot Lucario led Taiyou across the hangar to the rear of the structure, passing by a small narrow corridor where Taiyou saw 3D laser scanning Leandros's frame for some reasons as if the laser system was scanning him for biological information.

"LU-C4510 detected, welcome to Experimental Combat Attire wing." Said the automated speaker as the doors in front of him slide open leading Taiyou and Leandros into what appeared to be a dressing room where Taiyou was greeted with the sight of a dark carbon fiber combat suits.

It had roiled up muscle layers with a hexagonal texture, it had the helmet shaped in a canid like creature with two pointy ears perhaps for him, the suits even had a tail segment covering his wolf tail and a pair of red visor.

"This is what Lord Anubis has been working on for you, a Nanosuits model TCL-2010. The combat suit is designed to help you keep up with your enemies who may have adapted themselves to the changes of the world." Leandros stated to Taiyou as the suits's freezing chemical inside its storage pod hissed out in cold mist at their legs.

"He designed this for me?" Taiyou said in surprise, taking a closer look. "I'd like to say I'm surprised, but knowing Anubis, he probably had this prepared since whenever he found out someone was trying to kill me," Taiyou sighed as he examined the suit.

As the pod's glass door popped open, flipping upward with the suits inside resting quietly inside the pod, Leandros reached inside with both hands, grasping at the suits sides and brought it out. It was like an armor suits as he held it up but it didn't seem stiff, it felt smooth and graceful like Taiyou's body movements.

"Before putting on the suit, you'll need a first layer of protection from shock and impacts. Allow me to assist." Leandros spoke cautiously to Taiyou as he then proceeded to open the nearby wardrobe, inside it, Taiyou saw various black skin tight suits with pads on the torso, wrists and thighs sections.

The robot Lucario grabbed on and pulled down the zip on the back of the suit revealing it like a Scuba diving suit.

Taiyou looked at it for a moment, and sighed, before soon removing his own clothes so as to be able to use the suit.

The robot Lucario then let Tayou insert his hands into the suits first then helped him putting his tail into the back of the suits. Leandros then pulled the zip up locking the suits in making Taiyou felt that his rumps were bigger for some reasons.

Leandros first helped Taiyou placed his feet into the boots section of the suits and then secure his tail into the armored cocoon like section on the rear of the suit. Then the suit would begin to automatically latch onto his body clenching tightly at his flesh and fur with the helmet seal itself onto his head.

The visor flickered on and soon enough, Taiyou would see that his suit's HUD displayed numerous information to him but all of them were projected like 3D holograms attached to the objects he was looking. As demonstrated by when his focus was on Leandros, he saw various information like height, weight, age, serial code model as well as friendly/enemy status display.

LOADING OS ver.2.5

LOADING COMPLETED

USER: TAIYOU ID_SOL

FUNCTIONS LOADING: COMPLETED

MAXIMUM ARMOR RDY

MAXIMUM STRENGTH RDY

MAXIMUM SPEED RDY

CLOAK RDY

The HUD stated to Taiyou, he would then see that the HUD showed a diagram of his body's health and damaged parts on the lower left corner and a stamina circle around the diagram.

With a compass at the center of the screen showing where he's looking at while the at the top, he would see a bearing meter to show his bearing and direction and directions of enemies.

Taiyou would see that on the bottom right corner of the HUD, there was an energy circle represented by the Sun itself, he could feel the suit energy being charged by the Reflector levitating behind him constantly.

"This suits will protect you from incoming projectiles but do not push yourself. It also allows you to use your Brush techniques according to Anubis. Three functions of the suits can be used easily. Maximum Strength, Armor and Speed. But your cloak mode will require you to be more conservative of the suits energy supplies." Leandros instructed Taiyou as the suits and him settled into one another.

"Impressive, this suits was made… just for me. By Anubis, he hasn't forgotten about his family it seems. Leandros, I need to thank Anubis for this, not by words alone but by helping him since he saved me." Taiyou glanced his head over his shoulder to Leandros who was holding a tablet checking the suit's performance and movement synchronicity to Taiyou's body movements. "Assistance to the Jackal Guards is welcomed, your capacity as honorary member might be considered." Leandros stated to Taiyou.

"Your skills require training and assessment, follow me to the next hangar to begin your assessment process." Said Leandros as he hopped down a box he was standing on to monitor Taiyou's Nanosuited body. He began to walk away towards the nearby exit, the Nanosuits AI system then kicked in, marking Leandros with a green circle on his head with the word "FOLLOW" written on it for Taiyou.

The two went out to the adjacent Hangar where they found the building to be a firing range where some robots were seen squeezing off rounds down range. "Take a weapon from the Armory." said the AI of the suits with a marker projected onto Taiyou's vision. He went towards the armory master who was a flesh and blood Jackal warrior and surely enough, the arms master pushed out a rifle for Taiyou. "This here is your new wife, take care of her and she'll take care of you." the arms master quipped grimly.

The weapon was a bullpup rifle with the magazine attached to the rear of the rifle along with its mechanism, the butt stock seems to house all the working parts which allows a longer barrel to be fitted into the weapon. The top mount had a holographic dot for Taiyou to aim.

Taiyou looked at the weapon with a small frown, also not too happy with the joke, but decided not to say anything about it for now. Instead, he looked through the scope, aimed, and fired.

The bullets he squeezed down range flew everywhere, hitting the walls and metal blocks while leaving the targets untouched. This was clearly a mistake on his part as he found that the scope's aiming mechanics to be rather demanding.

"Steady your aim, hold your breath and fire in semi auto for accurate shots." Leandros instructed Taiyou using their radio connection. Hearing the instructions, he switched the selector to semi-auto mode and began to aim down sight again.

This time he held his breath and lined up his sights. Upon seeing the scope turned green with the laser trajectory simulating the bullet patterns he fired again, this time cutting down the three target cardboard cutouts properly. "Good, remember, your bullets can penetrate materials like wood, concrete, rocks and anything but they deal damages depending on the surfaces they impact." Said Leandros as the targets were now obscured by a sheet of plywood.

Taiyou fired again through the sheet, hearing the clanking sound of bullet impacts topping the targets off. "Excellent, one last thing before heading outside…" Leandros would then curiously enough, had a target board rushing towards Taiyou as if to scare him.

"Bash your target. When ammo is low." Said Leandros as the target came closer, seeing the simulated enemy close enough, Taiyou used his butt stock and bashed the target down causing it to retract to its starting. "It's time for you to meet Master Charlie Frost he is by the explosive range practicing."

The two would then head out of the hangar towards the explosive range where, as Taiyou came closer, he heard the loud thundering booms of grenades and explosives detonating.

The sound alone told him that his cherry bombs may have been outclassed. There he met an anthro robot wolf with similar built to him. This one seems to have a silver white chrome frame and blue highlights on his body and panels.

He held his grenade in hand and aimed down range before pulling the pin from it and tossed the explosive towards the direction of the targets. When it rolled on the ground the grenade detonated and froze the targets in seconds.

He heard Leandros walking closer to him though and turned around noticing the robot Lucario, "Hey Leandros… uh who is this guy?" Charlie asked Leandros, surprisingly sounding more lively than the other robots, in fact Taiyou could tell that Charlie himself wasn't a robot that was built from the get go. "Master Frost, this is Taiyou, son of Amaterasu of Nippon. And by extension, your 'Step-brother'." Leandros finished his blunt statement causing Charlie to widen his blue LED optics in shock.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?!" Taiyou gaped at the words.

"What he said. I mean step brother? What the hell?" Charlie gasped and huffed in panic at Leandros.

"Step-brother. My logical conclusion drawn from database regarding Lord Anubis and his acquaintances. Master Frost is Anubis's son, Lord Anubis in turn is married to Lady Amaterasu who is the mother of Taiyou. Therefore this render you two step brother." Leandros concluded, though it only sowed more confusions into both Charlie and Taiyou.

"But...I've never heard of this before! And Anubis has been part of my family for centuries now!" Taiyou tried hard to make sense of this. He knew Anubis wasn't the type to have affairs behind his mother's back, as it was something of a rule in the family that all relationships would be within knowledge of each other, and Anubis was too honorable to break that.

"Hey don't blame me, I'm an orphan and he just came in and called me his son and took me in." Said Charlie as he inhaled and exhaled rapidly as Leandros looked back and forth at Taiyou and Charlie. "He said something about me being a demigod, and that his wife from somewhere was murdered and he reincarnated the child into me. I don't know, I just got here for like barely a year or so." Said Charlie with an intense and long sigh as he looked back at Leandros. "Wait was this your idea of setting us up for your amusement?" He asked suspiciously.

Leandros nodded to Charlie however, and winked his red LED optic for once making Charlie grunted in surprise at the normally robotic character being able to plan a prank. "Affirmative, this was my plan to have you two meet. Expected reactions are within parameters." Leandros's robotic deadpan tone simply drive Charlie's fury to further boiling point seething out of his robot face more and more.

"Calm down Charlie, I mean it's just a prank. But I'm going to have to ask Anubis what's going on behind my back." Taiyou frowned under the mask of his suits and sighed out, for him it was his hope that this stay as a harmless prank. "What are you doing here by the way?" Taiyou asked Charlie looking back at the range filled craters and explosive shrapnels tearing holes through targets.

"Well I'm practicing grenades, this is the demolition range where you train with your frags and explosives, pyromaniacs love this place." Said Charlie as he then handed Taiyou a round ball shaped frag grenade. The grenade appeared to have a light on its surface set to yellow stand by, the pin on the top was Taiyou's only safety assurance. "So this is my hand grenade for the entirety of my time here?" Taiyou asked curiously looking at the frag grenade.

"Model M5 Frag Grenade. Effective range of 5 meters, High Explosive and fragmentation dispersal can cause severe damage and injuries. Particularly useful for room clearance and hard breaches." Leandros monotonously spouted out the information of the grenade to Taiyou as he held it in his hands carefully knowing that one drop can hurt them all. "Go ahead and toss it at the building facade over there, the one marked with the number 1." Charlie pointed towards the building facade made of concrete blocks.

Taiyou looked at the doorway of the target and held up his grenade, the Nanosuit's HUD seem to show him an AR arc of the grenade's trajectory once it left Taiyou's hand. He yanked the pin off of the grenade and tossed it at the facade.

The grenade flashed for 2 to 3 seconds before exploding. The loud boom of the grenade and the shrapnels it sent flying out were marked by the cinder blocks falling off with bits flying off. "You see that? That's what one frag grenade does to that building. Finally here's what we call the Bianca Almighty." Charlie said half jokingly as he picked up what appeared to be an shape charged explosive satchel.

The dark green satchel made from canvas contained blocks of plastic explosives inside of it. In fact Taiyou could see about 10 blocks inside of it, more than enough to take out a concrete bunker. "There's enough boom-boom in here to send a concrete bunker flying. Handle with care. I ain't paying for anything." Said Charlie with a sarcastic frown as he handed the satchel to Taiyou and led him towards the nearby concrete block.

Taiyou followed Charlie's instruction planting the explosive on the wall and attached it before turn around and ran as fast as he could back to the safety limits. "This is for the best part of the drill. FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Charlie shouted out loud as he hit the clapper, this triggered the Satchel Charge to blow up the concrete block completely leaving nothing but a smoldering crater in its wake.

As the explosion sound died down and the ringing in his ears, Taiyou can see that Anubis was approaching him with another robot accompanying the jackal deity, this one appeared to be a robot with a head of a strange animal. Canid like but twisted and almost demonic looking like Set Sutekh. "Taiyou, I see that you have met Charlie and Leandros there? How's the Nanosuits doing for you?" Anubis asked politely as he stood with his hands behind him.

"It's definitely doing its job. I honestly don't know how to describe how well it works," Taiyou answered. "Its...incredible honestly."

Anubis nodded to Taiyou noticing the Nanosuits seems to accentuate Taiyou's muscles a bit more, rolling muscles on his torso and arms and his abs were showing eye catching six packs. "Looking sturdy there I see. Excellent, follow me to the nearby hangar, OPFOR master Atreos here shall test your mettle in modern combat."

Seeing the gestures of Anubis's head turning subtly towards the hangar behind him, Taiyou and Leandros nodded to Anubis and followed the two into a hangar identical to the one he left, inside though he saw that the place had lighting system of a studio with the place having a massive VR arena in the middle where various environments can be simulated. "Step forward Taiyou, prepare your weapon and choose the attachments you deem fit." Atreos instructed Taiyou as he walked towards the other side of the VR arena.

On Taiyou's HUD, the Nanosuits display information regarding the VR scenario he was about to put into, the arena itself began to materialize various buildings and obstacles of a familiar setting, Kamiki Village in its ancient time. There were simulated villagers of old Kamiki Village like Susano, Kushi, Issun and much more. The simulated village even had verticality, sky, river and ponds meticulously recreated.

OBJ: 1. Secure Kamiki Village.
2. Rescue all civilian hostages.

3. Signal the all clear to prevent airstrike.

CIV. Density: Moderate

Tactical Assessment: CQB, Long Range Engagements expected

Allied Asset: LU-C4510

Seeing the parameters given to him, Taiyou would notice that Leandros has stepped up to the starting line with Taiyou as a partner. The robot Lucario was apparently armed with an identical rifle to that of Taiyou to allow easy ammunition sharing between the two. "I'll be your partner here and will relay information and updates as they become available." Leandros stated robotically as he lock and loaded his weapon, cocking the bolt before relaxing his synthetic muscles waiting for the go code.

"Right," Taiyou nodded. "Let's work together well," he said with a small smile.

Before their eyes, the digital countdown from 3 to 1 started and ended with a whistle from Anubis. "Go! Go! Go!" Anubis ordered seeing Taiyou and Leandros sprinting forward before Leandros took the lead for Taiyou scouting ahead, the robot Lucario was crouching down keeping a low profile as he moved. He shuffled forward to a tree bark and leaned out to his right observing the road into the village.

"Enemies in sight." Leandros informed Taiyou, their HUDs lighted up with symbols of enemy infantry patrol, two Viper grunts wearing green pixelated camouflage gear were walking down the road with their weapons slung on their backs not expecting a fight. Taiyou's HUD showed him that his enemies were marked in yellow diamonds. "Looks like they're stopping for a smoke, take one, I'll take the other. Quietly." Leandros informed Taiyou as he was seen putting on a suppressor to his weapon's muzzle.

Taiyou seeing this and copied the action himself by putting his own suppressor on his weapon's muzzle, effectively keeping the sound of his gunshots to a minimum. Leandros marked his target using the Augmented Reality system and marked Taiyou's target with the other, the two would open fire when their targets are lined up, dropping them instantly leaving the road open. "Moving up." Leandros led Taiyou further up the road until the two came up by the gate of Kamiki Village.

Taiyou's visor allowed him to zoom in and observe the place, he found that the village was apparently well guarded by the Viper forces, all of whom had arachnid like goggles on them to help with IR visions and other vision modes. Some of them appear humans albeit with static glitches of Holograms interfering with their appearance. These ones wore a monocle like IR goggle on their left eye. The fog apparently obstructed their views forcing them to put on various goggles for observation of the area.

"I see...these goggles help us in various situations to see despite obstructions," Taiyou nodded in understanding. "I see how these will be important. Let's go."

"Careful, they're trying to spot us through the fog." Leandros warned Taiyou. As they came up to the entrance of the village, Taiyou switched on his suit's cloaking mode, rendering him a transparent silhouette. He heard the suit's AI voice stating "Cloak engage" for a moment before he crouched down and moved up to the enemy patrols.

Leandros had to crawl in the high grass until he came up close, with Taiyou, the two simultaneously took down two enemy patrols with their hands. Leandros's wrist compartments flipped open revealing a built in laser tonfa, he thrust the blade into the enemy patrol's heart and yanked the blade out letting the target dropped to the ground.

As the simulation drags on, the scenario becomes ever more complex with enemies spreading out but try to keep each ones within view of one another in Kamiki Village, this forced Leandros and Taiyou to take the rooftops, planned and executed synchronized strikes to wipe out their enemies one after another.

Watching them from the observatory, Anubis countdown the time using an old sport countdown watch to see how fast the two worked. He hummed in thought looking at the watch attentively as seconds rushed by like a flash with the bodycount of the enemies continue to spike higher and higher before eventually hearing the call "All hostiles terminated" phrase uttered through the loudspeakers of the simulated arena. He hit the synch button on the watch and look at the time it displayed, 30 seconds remaining out of 10 minutes run. "Not bad, shy of our best run by a mere… 5 minutes sharp. But still not a bad run." Said Anubis as he approached Taiyou and Leandros, proceeding to hug and patted them both on their backs.

"Thanks. I guess that was pretty good for a first time," Taiyou said, rubbing the back of his head a bit. He wasn't actually sure how good or bad that was, but he'd take it.

"The honor is mine, my lord." Leandros replied stating in a polite but submissive tone towards Anubis as he bowed his head before the Jackal Deity. To this Anubis patted Leandros's shoulder, allowing him to look up. "At ease Leandros, you have done well too coaching the young Taiyou. Hmmm." Anubis looked over to Taiyou as the Nanosuits visor and helmet slip back revealing his real face to Anubis. "Taiyou, how are your parents and uncles? I hope they have been well while I was gone." He asked cautiously.

"They've been well, yes," Taiyou nodded. "Still wondering what the heck happened to you though, seeing as you just sorta stopped keeping in touch."

Looking down at his own body, knowing that it was going to be a shock for Ammy and Kaito to see him again in a sudden and it was clear to Anubis that he was putting more strains on their already estranged relationship. "A lot happened. No easy ways to put it to bedtime stories but best to tell it to the family face to face." Said Anubis with an audible sigh as he grip his abdomen region feeling his stomach turns as he thought. "Let's return to Nippon tomorrow. Portal travel. I need to make amends to your parents and uncles."

[hr]

Kitsune Village, the next day…

Ammy and Kaito were residing in their humble abode together at that moment, the day was still young with the two stretching out from their slumbers and no doubt an evening of making endless love to one another. Ammy slowly rose up from bed and stretched out, yawning as she did so.

As she stretched out, a portal tear open the fabric of realities itself revealing the travelers being Anubis first and foremost, following him were Taiyou, Charlie and finally Leandros passing through the portals before it closed behind them. Looking around at the sight of the green forest in summer made Charlie whistled out in awed at the natural landscape being virtually untouched for ages bewildered him. "How do you keep the forest from overgrowing anyway?" Charlie asked Taiyou curiously while looking around trying to know if the trees were normal or optical illusions.

"A mix of some magic to restrict their growth area, and weekly checks to trim any branches and the like that grow too far into the village territory," Taiyou said simply, having remembered the time when he was wondering about that too as a kid. "We also employ a few other tricks so that while we can be a bit isolated from other towns, we can access them relatively easily."

"Huh, fancy, all the forests from where I come from took ages to grow. No fancy gizmos or mumbo jumbo needed." Said Charlie in an otherwise casual and almost pedestrian tone compared to Taiyou more dignified and noble mannerism, to the Prince of the Sun, Charlie was an identical version of him in appearance but the exact opposite of him in character.

Even the footsteps of Charlie left behind frost bitten snowflakes and ice layer on the ground. "He was never raised in royal palaces or pampered by luxuries, I wonder if it's a blessing or a curse for him." Anubis sighed out as he walked with Charlie and Taiyou towards the nearby Kitsune village.

"I think that depends on what path he chooses to take. If he chooses to live as a god, then it might be tough, but as a mortal, I think he'll be just fine," Taiyou mused.

"True. I hope that he can find first a compass for himself." As they reached the Kitsune village, the inhabitants there took their appearance with great surprises, shocks and apprehensions. The foxes and vixens stepped away from Anubis first and foremost with mumblings ran like wildfire as they reached the mansion where Anubis stopped in front of the mansion and rung the bell. He patiently waited for Ammy and Kaito to come and open the doors. Behind him were Charlie and Leandros while Taiyou stood next to him still wearing his Nanosuits.

The door soon opened. "Who is i-?" Ammy asked as she opened the door, and stopped short when she saw who it was.

"Something wrong Ammy?" Kaito called, coming over. "You sounded li-" he too stopped short when he saw who was at the door.

Taiyou sighed and stepped forward. "This...is gonna take some explaining," he said tiredly.

[hr]

The guests were soon inside the mansion with Taiyou, Ammy and Kaito being on one side of the table with tea glasses on it for their guests. Anubis, Leandros and Charlie were on the other side with Anubis kneeling before Ammy and Kaito, Leandros being a robot modeled after Anubis and a Pokemon mimic his master's behaviors by kneeling before Ammy and Kaito respectfully remaining still as a statue.

"I know what you two want to know right now. Allow me to explain…" Anubis slowly sighed out beginning to explain himself to Ammy and Kaito. "I… went through a midlife crisis." He bluntly stopped himself in an awkward manner much to their confusion before trying to restart the effort. "What I mean is that… I went through hard times, trying to distract my enemies away from you all. Circumstances did not permit me to maintain contacts. As for this… robot body… I was experimenting with advanced technologies and made a few sacrifices to master it." He sighed out to Ammy and Kaito after spilling the beans in a very condensed manner.

"Loose lip sinks ship." Leandros added to the conversation, his voice came off as a synthetic voice modulator sounding rather gruff and like a low growl but lacking a menacing tone to it. The secrecy he emphasized to Ammy's family however left them with quite more questions than time to quench them all. The robot Lucario then moved his head slightly to look at Taiyou face to face, motioning him silently to try and explain to his parents.

"Well uh mom, dad what Anubis was saying was that he wanted to tinker with something. But he his method has always been 'Take one for the team'. Hence he does something questionable to us but perfectly reasonable to him." Taiyou nervously smiled to his parents scratching the back of his head while holding the Nanosuits visor in his left hand.

"Son, that still seems… off putting to me. He's my co-husband, if he had committed sooner, but I don't like seeing him altered in anyways." Said Kaito worriedly as he stood up and came to examine Anubis's robot body with Ammy. The fox lord gently poke at Anubis's broad shoulders with a finger and stroke it down briefly to get a feel of the metal pecs. Ammy held up Anubis's right hand in her own as she gave a gentle grasp. Both the parents felt Anubis's hardened body, the metal and cold armor plates chilling down their spines. However, every now and then, they felt the muscles below the armor plates swell, contract and mellow. "Do you feel it? The artificial muscles, they can feel your warmth, your bright sunlight, your beauty. They feel alive with your presence." Said Anubis with a smile forming on his mouth as he reached out and hugged both Ammy and Kaito in tenderly.

"Okay...still gonna need some getting used to, but glad to know its still you more or less," Kaito chuckled.

"We missed you while you were gone," Ammy smiled.

"Forgive me... For leaving you." Said Anubis as he patted them on their backs letting out a soft canine whimper. Then, he would hear the sound of incoming footsteps, his ears perked out towards the Shori door as it slide out revealing two male wolves barging in a sudden, causing Charlie to scurry back away startled by it. Anubis would recognize them as Tsukuyomi and Susano-O, the two older and highly protective siblings of Ammy. "Greetings, it's been a while." He greeted them casually.

"I thought we sensed something familiar," Susano-O frowned. "Yes, it has been a while."

"Though, what the heck happened? Aside from you up and vanishing, why have you suddenly returned, and looking like...that?" Tsukuyomi frowned.

Anubis sighed out standing up from Ammy and Kaito holding his hands out defensively to the two as he cleared his throat to them. "Now I just want to make my point clear, I have my reasons but if you want to hear unbiased version, hear it from your sister." Anubis replied to them with a sarcastic tone. As Anubis moves his hands apart, they could see that his gesture and body language didn't seem to suggest that he was willing to come forth clean right away. Looking around they saw that he brought along quite an entourage of mechanical figures. A robot arctic wolf with physique similar to Taiyou only with blue highlights on his body and panels. The other being oddly enough a robot Lucario who stood out from the rest.

The two looked at him closely...before nodding. "Alright, let's hear it," Susano-O said.

"Ammy, would you please?" Anubis stood aside and let Ammy came up to face her brothers. She sighed out at their frowning and crossed her arms patiently. "Brothers please, he had serious matters, life and death mind you, to take care of. He didn't want to drag us into his personal conflicts with his rivals so he fled and laid low." Ammy stated to them slowly and patiently before looking at them directly in the eyes, she was clearly banking on the two would reluctantly agree to her words and take it for what it is. "I spilled blood to protect others. Wouldn't you do the same?"

"Still… 2000 years missing is suspicious to say the least. You need to prove that we can still trust you." Susano-O crossed his arms and frowned at Anubis with Tsuki forcefully pushing him out of the room from behind. "You two are going to regret this." Anubis grumbled and snidely hissed at them as Taiyou and Leandros watched on.

Seeing this prompted Charlie to get off his knees and ran to stop Tsuki and Susano as he got between the two and Anubis pushing them back away. "Hey hey hey! I just got here and already you guys want to pick a fight? Some hospitality there." Said Charlie as he held his black steel cudgel in hand spinning it channeling a chilling breeze blowing over Tsukuyomi and Susano-O, leaving their snouts with some frozen frostbite.

This was no act of illusion or technological trickery playing on them, they saw and felt it. The pure and unbridled element of ice flowing in the strange robot arctic wolf and for both Tsukuyomi and Susano-O they can see the silhouette of Charlie being brightly lit by blue Mana flowing in him.

"Alright, that's quite enough," Kaito said in annoyance. "Yes, Anubis just vanishing for 2 millenia is a bad spot on him, but he's back, and things are pretty hectic as is. Let's save the extra conflict for AFTER things calm down, okay?"

Anubis nodded to Kaito as he straighten out his travel cape and placed his palm on Charlie's shoulder to assure him to stand down. "That I can agree on. I've been gone for too long. What's the world like now? How is the old Kamiki Village?" He asked Kaito then looked to Ammy, assuming that she would have been the first to know about anything that happens and going on within the village.

Ammy glanced up at Kaito's face for a brief moment before looking back at Anubis, "The village has been well," she began, "It has seen the longest period of peace and the place has grown since our first met. Perhaps you would like to see it?" Ammy asked Anubis, keeping up her bright as summer smile as she approached the dark and grim jackal deity of the Afterlife.

Anubis was seen nodding to her, breaking a smile on his snout, it was a rather stiff smile but still an effort that was worth commendation as he then hugged her in a sudden, wrapping both hands around her waists. He then kissed her lips passionately with his right hand holding the back of her head to keep their mouths locked into one another. This grossed out Charlie who looked away on instinct to avoid being grossed out.