Their battle won, at least for the time
being, Sean and the rest of the ACTF were settling down to a
meal and some well-deserved R-and-R. Sean was especially glad to
have both the meal and the promise of rest. It had been a
harder-fought battle than he was used to, against Zoanoids that
Sean hadn’t even known about. None of the Zoanoids that Chronos
had ever sent against him had been that strong.
Thankfully, these Zoanoids had been just
as stupid as the others that had been sent after him. And now,
just to make things that much better, there was the ACTF to back
him up. Sean hadn’t ever suspected, when he had first met up
with Atkins all those months ago in Utah, that he would ever be
joining up with a secret military organization that was
dedicated to fighting against Chronos.
Still, it was good to know that he had
people who would fight with him when it came down to it. Though
Sean had been a lone wolf for a long time, even he had to admit
that taking on Chronos was not a job that could be done by just
one person. And, now that he had Cori to worry about, Sean was
even more grateful to have the ACTF backing him up. Cori wasn’t
someone who liked to stay on the sidelines while other people
risked their lives.
Staying with the ACTF’s Scientific
Division and helping them research Zoanoids gave her a way to
feel useful. Not to mention the fact that she was damn good at
what she did. Of course, with these new Zoanoid types showing up
so suddenly, Cori and the rest of the Scientific Division were
going to have their work cut out for them. Probably for a long
time, given that they were going to have to do some pretty
drastic information-gathering.
Hell, the Tech Division was
probably going to end up getting involved as well. Everyone from
Atkins on down knew that the ACTF’s Tech Division were the only
ones who could get into Chronos’ computer systems with a minimum
of fuss. Sean had heard rumors that one of them had even planted
a virus in one of Chronos’ mainframes. Even if it
was
just a rumor, Sean was impressed with people who had the guts to
claim to be able to do things like that.
Sean had seen people in the Tech
Division do things with computers that he was sure that he’d
never be able to do. It there was any set of people who would
ever be able to get in and out of Chronos’ computer systems,
Sean knew it had to be the ones who worked for the ACTF Tech
Division. Finished with his meal, Sean left the table and headed
for his room. Cori would no doubt be there waiting for him, and
Sean would be happy to see her.
Cori also knew him well enough to know
that he wouldn’t be in the mood to do much of anything but
settle down and doze off. It was a side-benefit of their being
together for so long. Stretching as he walked, Sean made his way
down the corridor that would lead him to his quarters. ACTF
bases were built to be confusing, Atkins had told him, and sure
enough it had taken Sean a fair amount of time to get used to
the layout of the base.
Thankfully, none of the exits were in
any way hard to find. Nor was the armory, or any of the four
cafeterias. In fact, the only places that were hard to get into
and out of were the Tech Division’s little playground, and the
place where the mad scientists of the Development Division hung
out and designed all kinds of things for the express purpose of
making any Zoanoid who ended up on the business end of them
regret getting up in the morning.
If not being created in the first place.
When Sean had that thought, he had to
laugh at himself. Zoanoids weren’t the brightest bunch out
there, and Sean really didn’t think they had any capacity for
regret. Or any kind of thought, really, given the way they all
acted. It was kind of strange to think that some Zoanoids could
actually manage to pass for human, but then not all of them were
made completely by Chronos.
Sean sobered at that thought,
remembering Cori’s father again. He had been a Zoanoid, and he’d
given his life to protect Cori and Sean from Crane. Thinking of
the short-lived Guyver-Zoanoid, Sean shivered. It had nearly
been him that died in the cave when it had come down to a battle
between Guyver and Guyver-Zoanoid, and Sean didn’t even want to
think about what might have happened to him if Cori hadn’t been
there.
She had been the one to fire the shot
that struck Crane’s already-damaged Control Medal, giving Sean
the time he had needed to rip it out of Crane’s unit. Without
his Control Medal to regulate it, Crane’s Guyver had reverted to
its natural state: a flesh-eating parasite. Sean hadn’t waited
for Crane’s unit to finish its meal, instead opting to blast
both it and Crane into nonexistence with the Guyver’s massive
cannon.
After he had done that, and after his
talk with Cori and Atkins, Sean had sent the spaceship that
Chronos and he had dug up back to wherever it had come from. He
hadn’t wanted either Chronos or the government to have the
weapons that were on board. He still didn’t, come to think of
it. Even if he knew that the ACTF’s sole purpose was to fight
against Chronos and its massive army of Zoanoids, there were
still people in the government that Sean wouldn’t trust as far
as he could spit.
Atkins was a good person, if a little
hard-assed and overbearing at times. Sean didn’t know if the
same could be said of the people he served. Sighing, Sean
remembered something else that he had done on the day he had
killed Crane. After the admittedly spectacular launch of the
spaceship, Sean had gone back into what remained of the cave,
hunted down Crane’s damaged Control Medal, and stomped on it
until the final piece of Crane’s Guyver had been reduced to
little more than metallic dust.
It had felt good, cathartic, if maybe a
little pointless. Sean still didn’t know why he had been
compelled to destroy Crane’s Control Medal like that, but maybe
it had just been a crude way of getting one last bit of revenge
for all that Crane had done. Yeah, that was probably it. After
all, it wasn’t as if Crane’s Control Medal would have made much
of an impact on the would if Sean had left it intact.