"Well, since these people seem to know
you pretty well, I guess I’ll just-"
"Hey! I’ve seen you before!" a girl’s
voice, one that neither Howard nor Toshiaki recognized, called
out. "You’re that man who’s always been hanging around outside
the house. Did you finally decide to come in and meet us?" she
smiled, somehow looking cute and smug at the same time.
"Mr. Hayami?"
"Hi, Tetsuro, Mizuki."
The short-haired girl—and Howard was
just starting to wonder if he should ask her what her name
was—started over to them. At first it looked like she was going
to start chatting with them, but instead she walked right past
them, closed the door, and locked it up tight. Which, when
Howard thought about it, seemed like a really good idea. She
also locked up a second latch that Howard hadn’t noticed before.
"I can’t believe I forgot this; I
never
forget things like this!"
"I guess there’s a first time for
everything, Natsuki," Tetsuro said, smiling kindly.
"I think it was a good thing that you
forgot to lock that other lock," Mizuki said, smiling at Howard
and Toshiaki. "We would have never found out about what happened
to our friends if you had."
"I think you’re onto something there,
Mizuki," Natsuki said, laughing happily.
"Mr. Jackson? Mr. Hayami? What happened
in Relics Point after we left? And how did all of you manage to
get out?" Mizuki asked.
"What I really want to know is, where
are the other scientists? They did come out of Relics Point with
you, didn’t they? Where are you all staying?" Tetsuro asked.
"We’ve been staying at Prof. Odagiri’s
mansion," Toshiaki said. "And yeah, most of the scientists who
you met escaped. But…" Toshiaki trailed off, biting his lower
lip.
Howard looked away, too, not wanting to
be the one to tell their friends about what had happened to the
rest of the people that they had known from Relics Point. In the
end, he decided to change the subject.
"Hey, I almost forgot to ask; what
happened to Sho? And Prof. Odagiri? And where’s Agito? I thought
they’d be with you guys."
Mizuki sniffled; Tetsuro turned away;
and Shizu smiled with such determined brightness that Howard and
Toshiaki both knew she was in deep denial. Hell, even Aptom
could tell, and the shapeshifter wasn’t exactly what one would
call emotionally sensitive.
"I’m quite sure that Sho and Master
Agito are both fine," Shizu said, turning toward the three
guests and still smiling determinedly, hence not seeing the
looks of sympathy and pity directed at her. "What I’m more
interested in is what happened to all our friends from Relics
Point. Why don’t I go make some tea, and then you can tell us
all about it?"
With that said, Shizu turned and hurried
away, presumably into the apartment’s kitchen. Coming close to
the rest of the people that he’d inadvertently come to visit,
because he didn’t want Shizu to hear them talking about her
while she wasn’t there, Howard looked at the others.
"What’s wrong with her?"
"We were all inside the Relic when
it was destroyed," Tetsuro said. "Sho was piloting—at least he
was,
until he and Agito both left to deal with Gyou. He’d gotten out
in front of the Relic and was fighting Mr. Murakami-"
"He wasn’t fighting Mr. Murakami, he was
killing him!" Mizuki shrilly cut in, tears in her eyes.
Tetsuro nodded sadly. "You’re right,
Mizuki. Anyway, after Gyou had… after he’d killed Mr. Murakami,
Sho and Agito went outside in front of the Relic to fight him.
That was when the other Zoalords appeared. Most of them were
stronger than Gyou—much stronger. Though Gyou was almost half
dead by then, both from what Mr. Murakami had done to him as
well as probably from fighting that other Zoalord…" Tetsuro
paused for breath, and both Howard and Toshiaki wondered just
what was coming next. "That new Zoalord, this glowing, golden
one, somehow reflected both Mega-Smasher blasts back at us; the
Relic was destroyed by those."
"We haven’t seen Master Agito or Sho
since that day, but I’m sure they’re fine," Shizu said as she
came back into the main room. "Master Agito is probably planning
something even as we speak. Sir?" she called over her shoulder
to Aptom. "Would you like to stay and have some tea?"
Howard turned, noticing that Aptom had
been heading for the door. The other Lost Unit stopped, turning
around to look at all the people gathered in the main room of
the apartment he’d just entered.
"Sure," Aptom said, smiling. "I’d love
to have some tea."
He was smiling
without
his usual Hannibal Lector-ish I’m-going-to-eat-your-face
expression, which almost surprised Howard until he remembered
that there were other people in the room, too. Aptom probably
didn’t want to freak them out the way he’d tried to do with him.
That thought worried Howard a bit, since Aptom was or had been
acting, but Howard still wasn’t sure which had been the act and
which was the real Aptom.
Turning to look back at Howard, Aptom
smirked at him. Settling down next to Aptom at the table that
Shizu had just finished setting up, Howard leaned over so that
he could whisper in Aptom’s ear.
"What’s your game, Aptom? What are you
doing?"
"I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re
talking about," Aptom said with an obviously faked sincere look.
"Drink your tea."
"I want to know what you’re doing here,"
Howard insisted. "You said you had issues with Sho, and now
we’ve learned that Sho and Agito are probably dead. So what are
you still doing here?"
"You really think you want to know?"
Aptom asked, raising his teacup to take a sip.
"I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t,"
Howard shot back.
"You haven’t known that little bastard
nearly as long as I have; I know how damn hard he is to kill. If
he’s not here, then he’s probably biding his time before he does
something stupid like piss me off again. Besides, it’s been too
long since I’ve had a good cup of tea." Aptom lifted his cup and
took another sip.
Howard couldn’t really think of anything
to say to that, so he fell silent and drank his own tea. One
thing was for certain, though: he was going to have to have a
talk with Hayami about what Aptom had said, just as soon as he
could get away from the Lost Unit in question. Aptom didn’t
really seem like the type who’d appreciate being talked about.
XxXxX
Sean, full from a late dinner and dozing
in his bed, was wondering whether Cori would come in to kiss him
goodnight before or after he fell asleep. He was hoping that
she’d come when he was at least awake enough to appreciate the
kiss, but as he slipped further and further from lucidity, Sean
thought that that would be highly unlikely. Still, it would have
been nice…
XxXxX
Just as Sean was about to fall asleep
entirely, the door to his room swung open and Cori walked in.
Bending over the half-asleep form of the man that she loved, she
gently kissed first his right cheek and then his forehead. Sean
was such a good man, even more so since he hadn’t tried to keep
her from participating in this battle against Chronos once he’d
seen how much it meant to her. Cori had felt that she needed to
do this, and she still did, to give her father’s sacrifice at
least some meaning.
He’d given his life to make sure that
she was able to live, that was true, but if it hadn’t been for
Chronos, he’d never have been forced to make that choice in the
first place. They were evil—they’d ruined the lives of countless
people. Whatever Chronos was trying to do, they weren’t going to
succeed; she, Sean, and the ACTF were going to stop them before
they could hurt anyone else.
The blaring of the attack alarms, as
loud and sudden as they were, caused Sean to bolt upright in
bed. Cori quickly got out of the way of the door, knowing that
Sean would either rush right through it or one of the ACTF
soldiers would come in to get him, neither of which would have
been possible with her standing in the threshold the way she
was. She watched as Sean dashed out of the room, then turned and
headed for the Tech Division.
They were going to need her help
analyzing those new Zoanoids that Chronos had been sending after
them lately.
XxXxX
Sean, as he slowly woke from his
semi-conscious daze, found himself running with a large group of
ACTF soldiers. Or, more precisely, being dragged along as the
soldiers made their way to the base armory. Sean knew the way
there almost by heart after working with the ACTF for so long.
"Barker? You up yet?" one of the
soldiers asked.
"Yeah; yeah, I’m alright."
"You think you’ll be good for this one?"
Hallie Carson, one of the many soldiers in the Hunter Division,
asked as she ran along beside him.
Sean noticed then that Hallie and the
other soldier, whose name he hadn’t learned yet, were marching
him in along with the other soldiers.
"I think you should transform already if
you’ve got your bearings back," Larry Henderson said, signaling
for the other ACTF soldiers to leave the area so Sean wouldn’t
injure any of them.
Once all of them were out of the blast
and Sean had gotten far enough away from the equipment that he
wouldn’t damage any of it, he called for his Guyver unit. Once
he was fully encased inside the alien bio-armor, he turned and
ran out of the armory, following on the heels of the soldiers
that had been walking with him. Once all of them had made it out
of the compound, Sean looked around for their attackers.
Said attackers consisted of a large
group of some kind of hulking, white-furred Zoanoids that looked
like they had some insect parts mixed in just for kicks—whoever
had designed these new Zoanoids for Chronos certainly had weird
tastes. Sean was grateful to be wearing the Guyver— it had
restored enough of his energy that he no longer felt that he was
going to fall asleep on his feet, and he was facing Zoanoids of
a currently unknown quantity.
They might have been just like all the
other Zoanoids that Sean had ever faced during the time he’d
been battling Chronos L.A., or they might have been the newer
and nastier breeds he’d been facing since the ACTF had gotten
fully up and running. The four long, crablike pinchers that Sean
could see sticking out of their backs seemed to suggest that
these guys were the tougher ones.