The wall of the laboratory exploded
inward as Gyou’s full weight slammed into it, and Gyou only had
a moment to be thankful that it was not the one where Murakami’s
son was being held. That was when Alkanphel’s presence made
itself known again, far stronger this time. Cursing in his
native German, Gyou turned quickly back to the hole he had just
made in the wall. Charging up another Gravity Bullet, Gyou let
loose with his attack once he could see Alkanphel more clearly.
The dust from his impromptu entrance had
settled enough for Gyou to be able to see Alkanphel raising his
right hand. Even if he hadn’t been able to see that one action,
Gyou was sure that he would have been able to sense it when
Alkanphel’s forcefield snapped into place. The power of his
Gravity Bullet was dispersed and scattered over the walls, not
even touching the First Zoalord.
"Verdammen!"
Blasting a new exit for himself, through
four layers of reinforced concrete, Gyou let himself fall down
it. There really wasn’t much danger for him, at least not from
anything but Alkanphel, so Gyou wasn’t concerned about anything
– or anyone – that he might land on.
XxXxX
Zektor stopped in his pacing, and
quietly seething, for a minute to watch what was going on in the
rest of the base. It looked like Commander Gyou was on the
warpath, but it also looked like he had been spooked by
something. Zektor hadn’t thought it was even possible for
Commander Gyou to be spooked by anything, but whatever this new
threat was, it seeming to be doing the job.
"What the hell is going on out there?"
Gaster demanded. "Why is the Commander going on a rampage like
that?"
"I’m not really sure of that myself,"
Zektor said. "But whatever the reason, it seems to have
something to do with whatever’s chasing him."
"What could give the Commander this much
trouble?" Darzerb asked.
"Aptom couldn’t have managed to get
inside the base somehow, could he?" Gaster asked nervously.
If any of the remaining members of Team
Five had looked over at a certain Zoanoid, one whose uniform was
battered and torn, they would have seen him start to smirk. They
would have also seen that this Zoanoid possessed a large and
rather distinctive burn scar on the right side of his face. But
none of them turned to look at him, and so none of them would
find out his true nature until it was too late.
"I doubt it," Zektor said. "Besides,
even if he had, I don’t think he’d be strong enough to put the
Commander on the run like this."
"Do you think it could be one of the
Guyvers?" Darzerb asked.
"That’s a possibility," Zektor said.
"But still, I don’t think even two Guyvers working together
could give the Commander this much trouble."
"Well, if it’s not Aptom and it’s not
the Guyvers, then who could be doing this?" Gaster asked. "Who
could make the Commander so desperate to escape that he’d go on
a rampage this way?"
"I don’t know," Zektor said. "That’s
what scares me. And I don’t like the fact that we haven’t
received any orders from Dr. Balkus, either."
"Yeah," Darzerb commiserated. "I wonder
what happened to him?"
Zektor sighed, and didn’t say anything
else.
XxXxX
The wall behind him and to his right
exploded under the force of Alkanphel’s Gravity Bullet, Gyou
felt the shrapnel pelt his back as he ran.
-Where are you running to,
Reholt?- he heard Alkanphel
ask.
-None of your damn business! Get the
hell away from me!-
Another barrage of his own Gravity
Bullets, which did about as much to stop the First Zoalord as
throwing water balloons at him, left Gyou a fair amount more
breathless than he would have liked. This running battle, while
it had seemed at first like a good method to wear
Alkanphel
down, was instead doing just the opposite. Indeed, for all the
fatigue he was showing, the First Zoalord could just as well
have been sleeping while Gyou had been attacking.
Grumbling various vile curses at
the First Zoalord as well as the Second, Gyou blasted another
hole in the floor and leapt through it. There had to be some way
to lose Alkanphel before they both made it to the basement.
There had
to be!
XxXxX
Zektor had made up his mind by now,
after watching the monitor cameras go haywire one by one as the
Commander passed them. There was only one way to find out just
what was going on with the Commander; and that was to go out and
find him. He and Darzerb could help the Commander if he needed
them, but Gaster would have to stay behind since his weapons
weren’t really suited for indoor combat.
"Darzerb, come with me," Zektor ordered.
"We’re going to look for the Commander, see if we can help him
with whatever it is he’s doing. Gaster, you stay here and hold
down the fort."
"Why are you leaving me out?" Gaster
asked, mildly indignant. "I can fight just as well as either of
you."
"I know that," Zektor rushed to reassure
his fellow Hyper Zoanoid. "But you can’t use your weapons inside
the base, so you’d be helpless if Aptom or the Guyvers suddenly
showed up and tried to take advantage of the situation. Can you
even imagine how far they’d be able to get with us not knowing
who’s even responsible for all this destruction? It’s chaos out
there. So it’s really for the best that you stay here and see if
you can get a grip on the situation. Besides," Zektor winked.
"You’re the tactician here, I’m just the grunt-man."
"Yeah, or the grunt-bug," Gaster
chuckled. "Still, I can see what you mean. I
am
probably the only one who could manage to make heads or tails of
this mess."
"Don’t let it go to your head,
pink-boy," Zektor said, catching Gaster’s jokingly smug tone.
"Oh, go on already," Gaster shot back,
enjoying their banter. "You’re annoying me."
After a few seconds of fierce internal
debate, Zektor reluctantly decided not to pop Gaster one for
that. Rolling his eyes in that long-suffering way he had done so
many times instead, Zektor heard Gaster chuckle.
"Come on Darzerb, let’s get going,"
Zektor said, signaling for the largest member of Team Five to
follow him
"Coming."
Gaster, watching his fellow Hyper
Zoanoids leave, sighed once they were out the door and out of
sight. He might have agreed with Zektor’s reasons for leaving
him here, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it. Being
stuck in here, not even able to see what was happening to his
teammates since all the cameras in the area where the Commander
had last been sighted had all been knocked out by the
Commander’s energy field, was not something that Gaster was
prepared to take lying down.
One thing was for sure: Zektor was going
to get a stern talking to when he got back. Gaster almost had to
laugh at himself for that thought, it made him sound like
someone’s dad. The click of boots on the linoleum made Gaster
turn, curious about just who was coming. One of the Combat
Agents, one who looked like he had been roughed up quite a bit
judging from the state of his uniform, was giving him an
understanding look.
"They’re going to be all right," the
Standard Zoanoid said calmly.
"Yeah, I know that," Gaster said,
sighing. "They’re two of the best, and Hyper Zoanoids at that.
But still, I wish I could go out there with them."
"Oh, you’ll get your chance," the
Zoanoid’s tone was now distinctly sly.