Aptom had gotten hungry again by now,
and also bored, which was always a bad combination when one had
to deal with him. He knew that there had to be more Hyper
Zoanoids out here, Hyper Zoanoids that he could use to boost his
own strength for when he went to confront Commander Gyou. Aptom
knew that he would need all the strength he could steal to be
able to take on a Zoalord like Commander Gyou.
That was why he was leaping through the
trees in the failing light, trying to move as quietly as he
could. Aptom was on the hunt again. Completely out of thin air,
a bright burst of light exploded onto the scene. Seemingly even
brighter because Aptom’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness as it
had become progressively later. Now Aptom had to quickly
readjust to the new level of light he had to deal with.
Not being human anymore helped him
in that respect, since as a former Hyper Zoanoid it took his
eyes a lot less time to adjust to light. Looking down at the
three Zoanoids that he’d crossed paths with awhile ago, Aptom
didn’t know yet whether they were Hypers or not, he saw that
they were going over to investigate the flash of light. He could
hear them talking, wondering what the lightshow was, and one of
them mentioned that it had better not be
him
causing it.
Aptom was mildly insulted that
they thought he would be that obvious. He hadn’t been this
successful on his Zoanoid hunts by being stupid and obvious,
like whoever it was that was giving the lightshow was certainly
being. Aptom wasn’t sure just who
was
treating the four of them to the sight, but as much as he would
be loath to admit it out loud, he was just as curious as the
Zoanoids he’d been following.
Besides all of that, he was still
hungry. Whatever this new thing was, if it happened to be
something Aptom could sink his proverbial teeth into, he was
going to be there to lay claim to it before old man Balkus got
wind of it.
"Look, it’s coming down!"
"Do you still think it could be Aptom?"
"Nah, even Aptom doesn’t have this kind
of power. Besides, this feels different."
"I know, it couldn’t be Aptom."
"That kind of power"? I’ll show
you who has the power around here, you walking piece of
lunchmeat! Aptom sneered
inwardly. But, as the glowing figure slowly descended to land,
Aptom could almost feel what was making the Zoanoids below so
confused. There was something in the air, something that even he
would have been reacting to if he’d had the bad luck to still be
a Hyper Zoanoid at this point.
But even as he was, he could still tell
that there was something very strange going on in this area now.
Aptom was just wondering what that strange thing was, when the
figure landed and the light surrounding it dimmed. It didn’t go
out entirely, which was really weird as far as Aptom was
concerned, but it did recede to the point where he could make
out the figure behind all that golden-white light. The first
thing that struck Aptom about the figure was its height.
Aptom would have estimated this
new guy to be at least six feet tall, if not a bit more than
that. And Aptom could just
feel his power radiating in
the air. It enveloped him but it didn’t affect him, at least not
the way it did the Zoanoids who Aptom now could see were
kneeling at the man’s feet.
"Ah, a scouting crew from the Japanese
branch," the voice wasn’t as low as Aptom thought he had been
expecting, though it did fit with the face that he’d just
noticed was hidden under all that light.
"A pity they’ve seen me, now I suppose I
have no choice."
When the not-a-Zoanoid’s eyes
started glowing with hot, white light, Aptom again didn’t know
quite what to expect. Thus, seeing the three Zoanoids’ heads
explode was something of an interesting surprise for Aptom. This
guy… he had to be a Zoalord! Aptom grinned hungrily.
Maybe I don’t need to go after the
Commander after all. Or, maybe after a light snack here, I can
go do that, too.
Aptom had to laugh a little after
that. He though that even a Zoalord’s hearing couldn’t have
picked up something so quiet, but this guy was apparently not a
normal Zoalord. He turned his piercing, golden-eyed gaze to face
Aptom. Ooh, he’s a pretty one.
Grinning, just to put the pretty Zoalord off balance, Aptom
waved at him. The Zoalord didn’t look as amused or surprised as
Aptom would have expected him to be.
The way he was staring so intently kind
of unnerved Aptom, but he’d be damned if he ever let that
Zoalord standing under the tree know that. Seeming to finally
notice that Aptom wasn’t being affected by whatever power he had
used to kill the three Zoanoids, the blond Zoalord held up his
right hand, which Aptom noticed was encased in a tight, black
leather glove.
The next thing Aptom knew, the
tree he’d been sitting in was blown apart by what felt very much
like some kind of a wind attack.
That’s some trick! Okay, so I guess I
found my first snack, Aptom
grinned as he landed. This was going to be one hell of a
challenge, but it wouldn’t be as much fun if it were too easy.
"Hey, lunchmeat!" Aptom cackled.
"You’re pretty strong! Makes me wonder just how strong
I’m
going to be once I’ve finished with you."
The Zoalord showed no discernable
reaction, which was kind on annoying since Aptom liked seeing
the look of fear on the faces of the Zoanoids that he stalked.
But, then again, this guy had probably never heard of him
before. So maybe that excused him from showing what Aptom felt
was the appropriate level of slack-jawed terror. And, even
though Aptom wouldn’t have admitted it even under torture, there
was something in the Zoalord’s lack of any reaction that
unnerved him.
He wouldn’t have said it
scared
him, because Aptom was a Lost Unit and Lost Units didn’t get
scared, but it was still kind of unnerving.
"Hey, I’m
talking
to you," Aptom said as he rose to his full height, which
annoyingly enough wasn’t quite up to that of the Zoalord. "Don’t
try to pretend you can’t hear me, lunchmeat!"
Still no response from the blond
Zoalord standing in front of him. Annoyance spiraled into rage,
which quickly sent fear whimpering into a dark corner. He’d been
treated like shit, or alternately like he didn’t even
exist,
for too fucking long now. Now it was his turn to cause some real
trouble for his former ‘employers’, and Aptom would be damned if
he was going to let such an opportunity pass him up. Besides,
this guy was reminding him of Dr. Balkus now.
Aptom hated Dr. Balkus.
"You’re
mine!
You hear that you bastard?!" Aptom charged.
All he had to do was get a
handhold, Aptom knew, and his own parasitic DNA would take care
of the rest. It was the one almost-nice thing Dr. Balkus had
done for him, but even that didn’t make up for his letting those
idiotic Standard Zoanoids and Hyper Zoanoids treat him and his
comrades like trash. Besides, anything the not-so-good doctor
had done for
him was a fluke. Balkus had as much as admitted that to him when
he had taken Elegen.
Aptom wasn’t so absorbed in his
charge that he failed to notice the Zoalord raising his hand
again, but since he knew that the Zoalord’s mental powers
wouldn’t work on him Aptom wasn’t concerned so much about that.
But, as he felt himself being lifted off the ground by some kind
of invisible force, Aptom made a sound of surprise. It wasn’t a
yelp, since Lost Units did not
yelp even when they were honestly surprised, but nevertheless
Aptom did acknowledge that that he was in fact surprised.
Okay, so I’m floating now. This
isn’t so bad, I think I could even get used to it,
Aptom reassured himself. Hell,
I could even get used to using
this power. Aptom could see
the Zoalord’s eyes roving over his body as the Zoalord studied
him, and could almost feel the Zoalord trying to access his mind
and failing, then at last the pretty blond Zoalord started
speaking again.