Once Mizuki’s back was to them, Sho and
Agito started stripping down to their undergarments. They left
their socks on, of course, and then they packed their original
clothes in the case where Mizuki was going to be. There would
still be ample room for her, of course.
"Mizuki," Agito said. "Come here, would
you?"
"What do you want me to do?" Mizuki
asked as she came over to stand beside him.
"There is a reason that I didn’t steal
another uniform for you, Mizuki," Agito informed her, while he
set the clothes and shoes inside the case in such a way that
they wouldn’t be of too much an inconvenience to Mizuki.
"Chronos has never processed a woman before, and with your
physique you would have a great deal of trouble just blending
in. It would be much safer for both you and us if you were to
simply follow my suggestions."
"All right, Agito. What do you want me
to do?" Mizuki asked again.
"Climb into this case and make yourself
as comfortable as you are able," Agito instructed calmly,
gesturing toward the off-white carrier in front of them.
"All right," Mizuki nodded a little
dubiously.
Climbing into the case once Agito had
stood it on its side, Mizuki curled up as tightly as she needed
in order to be able to fit herself inside the case. That turned
out not to be very tightly at all.
"Good," Agito nodded, as he closed the
case with Mizuki inside.
"Agito, are you sure she’s going to be
safe in there? What about if she starts to run out of air?" Sho
asked, as he began to strap the helmet of his Chronos uniform
on.
"The case has sufficient ventilation,"
Agito said calmly. "We were also able to disguise that fact, as
you might know by now."
"Oh," Sho said, snapping on his helmet
and flexing his fingers to get used to the sensation of wearing
gloves again.
The entire uniform felt strange on him,
but that might have just been because he was remembering what
had happened the last time he and Agito had put on these
uniforms and gone walking straight into Mt. Minakami. Sho tried
to put that out of his mind, working to reassure himself that
this time would be different than the last time. They weren’t
going in on a rescue mission this time, but there was still the
chance that they would be discovered. Sho decided not to think
about that.
"Fukamachi, let’s go," Agito said
calmly, evidently seeing the nervousness that Sho was starting
to feel.
"All right, Agito. I’m coming."
"Remember, we are not to refer to each
other by name once we enter Mt. Minakami," Agito said. "In fact,
I suppose that we should simply not speak at all unless we are
required to. That was the procedure I saw in practice in most of
the main areas of Mt. Minakami."
"All right," Sho nodded, then fell
silent.
Agito nodded as well, then he popped out
a handle that Sho hadn’t even noticed from the back of the
transport case. Agito knew that most of the larger transport
cases were equipped with these pop-out handles, as well as
having small wheels on the bottom, to facilitate their ease in
being moved. The wheels themselves were freshly greased, so the
case moved easily along the tunnel floor without making too much
noise.
The only things that echoed off the
walls of the tunnel, in fact, were the footsteps of Agito and
Sho as they made their way through the tunnel and the wheels
rolling over the somewhat uneven ground. Sho was starting to
feel a little apprehensive by the time that he and Agito finally
made it to an opening. Agito beckoned him forward, and Sho
pushed down his uneasiness and followed Agito through the hole
and into another tunnel.
This one was obviously the monorail
tunnel that Agito had mentioned, the one that would lead them
into Mt. Minakami. The single track in the middle of the tunnel
were a fairly large giveaway as to the tunnel’s original
function. As Sho followed Agito closer to Mt. Minakami, he hoped
that Mr. Murakami would be okay when they finally met up. Agito
had said that Mr. Murakami had used up all of his energy in the
fight with Gyou, but maybe that only meant that he had to rest.
Yes, that was probably it. Mr. Murakami
just had to rest from the fight with Gyou, he would probably at
least be awake by the time that Sho and Agito had made into the
basement of Relics Point. With that thought in mind, it was
easier for Sho to focus on keeping his cover the way that he had
when he and Agito had gone into Mt. Minakami the first time.
XxXxX
Aptom, full after his latest meal, was
lounging in a tree. He was also almost casually bio-morphing his
hand back and forth between that of a human and that of the
Enzyme II whose DNA Dr. Balkus had been courteous enough to
provide him with. It was a sort of game he had developed for
himself to play when he was bored, and Aptom was currently bored
out of his skull.
All of the Hyper Zoanoids that had
been in this area had fled, no doubt under the orders of the old
coot. Hell, he hadn’t even managed to catch the rest of Team
Five. Aptom had
managed to nab a few of the ‘normal’ Hyper Zoanoids though, and
now he knew they would be on high-alert for him. That didn’t
mean so much, Aptom knew, since he
was
a shapeshifter after all.
But still, it was kind of annoying
to think that his snacks were getting smarter.
So, absorbing Standard Zoanoids
doesn’t make me any stronger. I need Hyper Zoanoids if I want to
get anything useful out of my meals. Or maybe something even
stronger… Aptom smiled then,
as an idea came to him with startling clarity and suddenness.
Zoalords! Of course, I
wouldn’t want to eat the old coot, since I imagine he wouldn’t
taste very good… Aptom laughed
inwardly.
But maybe one of the others…
Aptom thought for a minute, trying to recall if there
were
any other Zoalords staying in Mt. Minakami at present. He
grinned as a recollection came to him.
Of course! Commander Gyou came to Mt.
Minakami when Chronos Japan’s other HQ got totaled in that
Guyver attack! Aptom grinned.
Maybe I’ll just have to pay
old Gyou a visit. It took a
great amount of self-control for Aptom not to laugh out loud.
You never really knew when other
Zoanoids might be watching, after all.
XxXxX
Back in the deeper levels of Mt.
Minakami, just a single level above the beginning of Relics
Point in fact, Dr. Halverson drank a cup of fresh coffee and
periodically checked on the growth of the specimen Commander
Gyou had brought to him. He’d managed to shut his nagging
conscience up some time ago, and by now he was fully
appreciating the fruit of his labors. The boy, who was no longer
really a boy but a young man now, had grown up quite nicely.
It would still be about four or five
hours before he would be able to survive the drastic physical
and genetic changes necessary for him to become a Zoalord, true,
but Halverson knew that he was close to completing his full
growth cycle. His physical development was just passing that of
an eighteen-year-old, and Halverson could clearly see that the
boy’s musculature was almost fully developed.
I suppose that to me this specimen
will always be a child, despite anything I might have to do to
him. Halverson was starting to
feel a little more relaxed, now that the specimen was no longer
so obviously too underdeveloped to be processed. Now, if any of
the scientists loyal to Dr. Balkus were to come across this
particular processing-tank, they would not see anything out of
the ordinary with regards to what Halverson was doing.
After all, the beginning of the
Zoaformation process was often the most touch-and-go. It was
sometimes difficult to predict just how the physiology of
certain individuals would react to the mutigenic properties of
the processing fluid once they were exposed to it. It wouldn’t
do to make a Lost Unit just because of carelessness, after all.
Neither would it be advisable to kill the intended Zoanoid just
because someone couldn’t be bothered to monitor their growth.
Halverson looked back to the monitoring
console, decreasing the growth hormones to a more stable level
and adjusting the vitamin solution. The calcium could be
dispensed with entirely at this point, and Halverson did so
without hesitation. Halverson was satisfied with the fact that
no one who did not know about the child’s being brought into Mt.
Minakami would ever be able to recognize him as such.