When the plane landed in Las Vegas, Isis was in no mood for seeing anything but her new home and the bed in it. She did not want to see the sites, even if that was what the man that met her at the airport said that they were going to have to do until the helicopter that was going to take them the rest of the way to the Cronos America base in Death Valley arrived. She did not care about the sites, or sounds, or even that her guide wanted to gamble. So Isis sulked and did not say anything to the annoying little man.
Hours had passed before the little man, with the not so little bold spot, finally said that they should get back to the airport. As soon as they arrived, they were escorted to the helicopter and waited for clearance to take off. This took another hour. Isis was practicably dead on arrival at the Death Valley Base and did not mind one bit that all the heads of staff were not there to meet her. They were in bed, where she was going just as soon as the little annoying bald man showed her the way. But when it looked as if he was going to delay her yet again, Isis snapped.
"See here, I was put on an airplane at 2 o'clock in the morning so that guyvers in Japan would not know that there was a branch of Cronos here and try to follow. There are two of them now, and they could have decided to split up. So I am very tired and I do have a lot of work to do to get my equipment set up tomorrow. Now, you will either take me to the apartments that I have been promised, so that I can get some sleep, or I will simply take myself there without your help. And I will not set up the equipment until late in the afternoon, after I have had plenty of rest. Which is it going to be?" Isis stared down at the annoying little balding man.
The man looked back at her with scorn. "And how are you going to find the rooms, Little Missy? You do not know your way around this base as well as they say you know your way around the equipment that you brought with you. You don't even know the passwords. And I would be nicer to me than all that. You are just a technician. I am a zoanoid and I don't have to tell you how bad it could be to get me mad."
Isis only smiled at the little man. First she picked his mind for the passwords, then she swore that this would be the first zoanoid that Guyver4 was going to kill here. Sometimes this habit of hearing other's thoughts is not a bad thing. "Well, let me see... First, I am not just a lab technician. I am going to be in charge of my own lab, and have assistants of my own. Secondly, your real name is Yoshoph Chekov, you changed it to Shawn Checkers when you came to Cronos America six years ago. Lastly, the first three passwords are zoan5, key7, and jonlong9. Also the apartments that are to be mine are going to have to be repainted. I hate yellow. Any other questions? Oh, and my name is Isis, not miss anything. Just Isis."
"How did you know that? What are you that you can know all of that?" The man burst out mad all of the sudden.
Isis laughed, so did a few of the other people that had come to welcome her. "Look, if I want to know something that you know, and I know that you will not tell me... Well, let us just say that I have my ways of finding out a person's deepest secrets. Now, will you take me to my apartments or do I go there myself?"
"She has you there, Checkers. You best stop giving her a hard time. Shoot. Just forget about it. I will take her to her rooms myself. Hello, Isis, I am Janice Kelley. I am a zoanoid, but I don't really enjoy the jokes that these bullies keep pulling on the new lab techs. I don't think that they are all that funny. They just like to see you squirm. Not that many of you bite back when you find out that they are zoanoids. That is why they keep doing it." The lovely woman with nut brown hair and eyes said to her as she held out her hand in greeting.
Isis took the hand and shook it firmly. "Thank you, Kelley. Kelley is what you like to be called, isn't it? And I make equipment that will make zoanoids three or four times the strength and intelligence of those zoanoids. Zoanoids are just so dumb, you, I hold as the exception." She smiled, and swore that she would not kill Janice Kelley unless it became absolutely necessary.
"Yes, as a matter of fact that is what I like to be called. So why don't you have a last name, Isis?" Kelley spoke as she walked Isis to her rooms where her bed waited for her.
"Ummm... That is because I have never had a family. I am an orphan. All I know really is that my mother was part American. I think that she died when I was born, but I could never get anyone to tell me if that was true or not." Isis explained. She was not about to tell any zoanoid that she was beginning to think that guyver would be a good last name. Not even one like Kelley.
Janice Kelley looked over at Isis. "I am sorry. I had a family once... But they were killed in a fire when I was only three. I can only barely remember them. I can not imagine never knowing them at all. That must have been very hard on you growing up. So when did you decide that Cronos was the place for you? You seem a bit younger than most of the others that come to us."
Isis gave her a sidelong look. "The truth be known about that... I was out in the woods near my boarding school one day, when I was sixteen. I saw this girl leaving a cave. So, I went to check out the cave too. There was nothing really there. It was just a spaceship. Then about a week later, Cronos Japan came and took the ship away. One of my friends in Cronos Japan did tell me that they had thought that a very strong guyver unit was kept inside of the spaceship and that someone had taken it before they could get to it. I really don't know if the girl took the guyver unit or not. I can't even remember her face, though I did not really get a very good look anyway." Ok, so it is not all of the truth. So what. Isis thought.
"Well, here are the rooms that will be your's. You have the dining area and the living room in the same space, as you walk in. Then off to the right is the bathroom, you have a very nice bath tub and shower in there. And off to the left is your bedroom. I hope that you do not mind, but Cronos America does not have any of the Japanese bedmatts that you are used to sleeping on. All we have is the normal American, off the floor mattress and box springs. And also strait ahead you will find a small kitchen area so you can cook your own meals if you want to. But we do have a company kitchen that you can get meals from at any time too, incase you don't feel like cooking your own meals. Well, goodnite, Isis." Kelley smiled and left.
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It had been weeks since Isis had arrived at Cronos America's Death Valley Base. She had settled in very well after that first bit of trouble. Guyver4 had made the one appearance now and the Death Valley Base was very busy trying to find some way of destroying the guyver that had come to plague them. Isis was not very happy though. She had become acutely aware at the moment that Agito had been found out to be Guyver3 and she wondered how long it would take Cronos to uncover that she too was a guyver.
"Oh, well, it cannot be helped. If they find out then they just do. I really do need to get to my room soon so that I can sneak out. I overheard some of the zoanoids here say something about getting a group of kids from the Sequoia National Park for the next batch of zoanoid experiments. There are some Cronos agents out there now. I have to get going. Say hi to Sho for me when he finds out about me." Isis stopped sending the mental message when Kelley walked in. "Hello, Kelley. How are you doing today?"
"I am doing fine. I hear tell that you are going to have some young ones to work with real soon. Does that make you nervous? The young ones are always so difficult." She did not look at all happy when she said it though.
"Were you a young one, Kelley? Is that why you do not like the idea of them bringing in these? You turned out well. I have seen your zoanoid form. Not bad, I can see room for improvement, but not much." Isis stood up from her desk where she had been working and started to gather her things. "I have a lot to do in the morning. So, I am going to turn in early. Do you mind if I skip going to Las Vegas with you this time?"
Kelley nodded. She had been a zoanoid since she was 9 years old. She also frowned at Isis. "You always have something going on. Why don't you ever take a break. With these new young ones in, this may be the last time that you will have any chance to party. Come on. We are going to take the helicopter. Please come, Isis."
"Now, Kelley. You of all people should know that I need to do my work better that anyone else. To do that I do have to give up doing a lot of things. I take my job very seriously. I have to go to bed now. But you go out and paint the town red, as your saying goes. Just tell me all about it over lunch tomorrow in the company kitchen." Isis and Kelley walked out of the lab that Isis was using and down the halls to Isis' apartments.
"Ummm... Isis I heard that they found out that your friend Agito was Guyver3. I just wanted to see if you knew that. And that he defected from Cronos?" Kelley did not look as if this was a question that she wanted to ask.
Isis sighed. "Kelley, you are the only other person in my life that I have called friend, Agito was the first. I knew that he was a guyver. I knew that he did not agree with a lot of what Cronos was doing. He is still my friend. Guyver or not. I will not say otherwise. I do my work well, and I do not betray my friends. Okay?"
Kelley nodded. "Isis, I will have to tell Director Johnson that you knew about Agito and you did not tell anyone. I am sorry that I have to do that, but I do. I am telling you this because I see you as my friend too. You don't know that female guyver that is plaguing us, do you?"
Oh, I see her in the mirror every morning. I can't tell Kelley that. For all that she is my friend... She would have to try to kill me. And her zoanoid type would not even come close. For all that she is stronger than the Zerabubus type zoanoid. What do I say? "Kelley, if I knew who she was, don't you think that I would tell you? You are my friend and she could pound you into the ground. A normal guyver could, and I have heard that this one may be the guyver unit that was stolen from the spaceship that I told you about. That means that she would be stronger than the other guyvers. It would be nice if she were on our side," depends on who's side you are on, "but she has not attacked anyone yet. So, maybe... I just hope that she does not see those zoanoids out there taking kids. That could destroy any chances of her coming over to Cronos' side, don't you think?"
"Well, yes. I guess that I will see you in the morning. Oh, and we will talk about what improvements you could make on my zoanoid type. Goodnite." Kelley walked off down the hall.
As soon as she was in her room, Isis activated the stealth pack that she had been working on. It would do her little good to be Guyver4, and a Cronos lab tech, if they found out that she was both. That had happened to Agito and look at where he was now. He was hiding, with that poor Sho and his friends. Now there was a guy you could really feel sorry for. He never asked to be a super hero, or anything. But a guyver has to do as their unit was designed to do... Something about that really bothered Isis. But she did not have the time to do anything about it. She called her guyver armor to her, quietly, and flew out the skylight that she had in her dinning area.
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Janice Kelley walked away from Isis' apartments with a very confused look on her face. She had some notion that Isis knew a lot more about the guyvers than she let on. But she could not get Isis to talk about it. That Isis did tell her that she had know about Agito being a guyver had been a surprise. She did not think that Isis thought that she was that good of a friend. Now that she knew, it was very hard to go to the Director and tell him what she had found out. But she had been given a direct order to do so, and no zoanoid could disobey the Director. Director Johnson was a Zorlord with very strong telepathic abilities. Kelley knew that any zoanoid going against his orders would have to have a stronger mind, or would get mind blasted to hell and back.
"Director Johnson is expecting you, Assistant Director. You can go right in." The woman sitting at the desk typing told her as she approached the Director's office.
Assistant Director Janice Kelley, the Director's right hand walked into his office to make her report on how her surveillance of the new lab techs was going. "Director. I have my first report on the new lab techs ready for you. I believe the two men are not worth anything and should be made into zoanoids so that they can be of some use to Cronos. Of the three women, I believe the same for two of them. I do not however believe this of Isis. She is the one that came from Cronos Japan. She is pioneering a process that will allow an already existing zoanoid to be improved without loss of intelligence. Up until now that was not possible."
"Isis, that is the one that was friends with Agito Makishima, was she not?" The Director asked Kelley.
"Yes, sir. She did tell me that they had been friends. She also told me that she had not ever had a friend before him, and I guess that everyone makes a mistake in trusting someone sometimes. She also considers me to be her friend, sir. And Isis did tell me that she had hope that this female guyver would join Cronos." Kelley tried very hard not to think about what Isis said about her knowing about Agito being a guyver, or how she thought that Isis knew more about guyvers than she was telling. But when she felt the Director's mind touch she knew she did not hide those thoughts well enough. He had found them and was not going to just let them lay there unnoticed.
"Why are you hiding these things from me?" Director Johnson asked Kelley knowing she knew which things he spoke of. "This Isis has made a mistake in judgment once in trusting Agito Makishima, and again in trusting you. Who is to say that she will not trust this Guyver4, as well. She could become a liability to Cronos if she does that. And I have known for some time that she knows more about the units than anyone other than perhaps the guyvers themselves. Now, I think that I know why. If she knew of Agito's being Guyver3, then she more than likely helped him to discover the many functions of the guyver armor and its weapons. Don't you agree?"
"I agree that is more than likely the case. I do not agree that she has misjudged me. I did tell her that I reported to you. Even if I did not say how directly, sir. And I do not think that she would become a liability either, sir. I cannot say how she will react to Guyver4, sir. Mainly, sir, because I do not know how I will react to the guyver. She has not attacked anyone. The only time she showed up, she just introduced herself as Guyver4 and told the zoanoid that she would be watching. She did not say why she would watch, or what she would do, so I cannot judge." Kelley did not know how far she could take that line of thinking in the Director's presence.
The Director just nodded. "You can go now, Kelley. Go to Las Vegas and have some fun. You look like you have been working very hard lately."
"I have, sir. I have been trying to keep up with Isis' schedule. She really does believe in the full day's work." Kelley turned and left the office not feeling at all happy.
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Guyver4 placed the stealth device in one of the Sequoia trees and sat down on one of its large branches. The attack on the camping kids would come soon. She was very worried. Two groups of kids were out camping tonight. A group of girl scouts, and a group of boy scouts. They did not stand a chance against the zoanoid team that was out here. And she did not know which group, if not both, was going to be taken. If both groups were to be attacked at the same time she was sure that she would lose one group, maybe both of them.
Sighing, Guyver4 let her mind reach out to the kids. Their camps were only a mile away from each other. But that mile could be the difference in whether she could save them all. She let her empathy settle on the kids and waited for the fear to come. Then she would know where the attack was to be. Zoanoid minds had always given her a headache when she read them, so she did not try to locate them that way. She had regretted reading Shawn Checker's mind, he would have to be a Zerabubus type. And my first fight would have to be with him leading a whole team of that type against a bunch of kids. Assholes. She made sure that she had the small needle ready, in case she got her hand on one of the zoanoids and then he got away. She knew that the acid in the needle would break down the DNA coding of the Zerabubus type. Any of them that did manage to get away would not get far before they began to die.
Guyver4 did not need her empathy to hear the scream that tore though the forest. Wouldn't you just know that they would go after the girl scouts and leave the boys alone. Pigs. But then again boy scouts camp all the time. Oh, well, to work. Guyver4 flew down to the girl scout's camp and saw that she was already too late to save the girls' den mother who had pulled out a hand gun on the zoanoids. The girls were screaming and running in circles trying to find a way to run that would get them away from the zoanoids. First, I got to get the girls out of here. How, how? Oh, yeah... I bet this will work.
"Girls! If you want to get away from these things! You should run into that open tree over there! It is my job to exterminate these creators, and I will come and get you when it is safe!" Guyver4 made her armor project the words while her mind sent feelings of safety to them as best she could. The girls, all twenty-seven of them, made for the tree trunk that had been hollowed out by someone long ago. And seeing as it was a sequoia tree that they were running into, all twenty-seven of them fit. "Now, if you zoanoids will just show me your park passes we can get all of this straitened out."
But Checkers ordered the zoanoid team to attack. Guyver4 had known that would be the case, so she flew over the advancing zoanoids. She extended her High Frequency Wave Vibration Swords from both elbows, and the smaller High Frequency Wave Vibration Blades from the heels of her armor. "Let me show you something that my armor has that no other guyver does." She told Checkers as she landed on his face, both of the High Frequency Blades in her heels cutting into his face. Guyver4 then flipped away from him before he could strike back.
"That was very stupid, Guyver. Now you are surrounded. And you can't use your Mega Smasher, or you may hurt the little girls hiding in the tree." Checkers snarled. "Get her!"
"Who needs a Mega Smasher anyway." She grabbed the first zoanoid that reached her and picked him up. "You should play with some of your own kind, you know." Then she threw the zoanoid onto three others. Guyver4 laughed. "This is more fun than I thought it was going to be. This is my first fight. Did you know that?"
That seemed to make Checkers even madder. Which was what Guyver4 wanted him to be. "You are going to die. This is your last fight."
As he advanced, another zoanoid reached out to grab her. She went down on her left knee and kicked up with her right leg. The heel High Frequency Blade cut right into his crotch. The zoanoid went down in pain. "Well, what do you know. That does still work on you guys. I was not entirely sure that it would." Guyver4 laughed as she rolled and came back up onto her feet.
Inside the trunk of the tree one of the girls turned to the others and said, "See, I told you that was a girl. She just kicked one of them in his man part." All of them laughed. They were feeling a lot safer now.
"Now, don't you keep me waiting, Checkers. You come on over and let me keep a promise. I swore that you would be the first zoanoid that I killed. So, lets go." Guyver4 stood waiting for the leader of the team to attack her.
"How do you know my name? Who are you, Guyver4?" Checkers charged in very angry. As he charged Guyver4 held one hand out in front of her. When he was too committed to the charge to stop, she let him have it with her Pressure Cannon.
"Oops. Did I forget to tell you that I only need one hand to fire my Pressure Cannon? Guess I did." Two zoanoids came at her from either side. She held her arms up beside her, and let them both have it with a Pressure Cannon from each hand. "Now how dumb was that? I just told you it only took one hand to use my Pressure Cannon. Don't you know that means that I can fire two off at the same time. I have two hands, assholes."
There were now three zoanoids dead with really messy holes in their chests, and the one that had his groin sliced open still was not moving. The other two came at her straight on. They hoped to overpower her. Their hopes were shattered when one of them floated into the air. "Oh, I am sorry. Only one dance partner at a time." Guyver4 then proceeded to slice the zoanoid on the ground into pieces. And she sliced the head off the zoanoid that was bleeding from his groin. Then Guyver4 let the last zoanoid down, he was the one that she had thrown at his friends. "Are you the only team out here tonight? I will know if you are lying to me, and your death will be all the more painful if you lie."
"No, we are the only ones. I sware we are. You picked me up, and threw me. How? You are stronger than the other guyvers are. I have seen the tapes of their fights. How can you be stronger, faster, you even have more weapons than they do?" This last one did not look as if he wanted to fight her at all anymore.
"I guess I can tell you a little thing like that. I am not a guyver. I am the Guyver Assassin. I was made to destroy all guyvers, and zoanoids. The last joke the creators pulled on mankind you see. I have to be stronger, and faster than the prey." Where did that come from? "You can go if you do not want to fight, or take any of the kids."
He nodded and ran off without even looking at his fallen companions, or at the girls who were slowly coming out of the tree. "Why did you let him go? He was one of the monsters. Are you an alien?" Guyver4 recognized the voice of the one girl that had made a comment about her fighting style.
She looked each girl over to see if any of them had gotten hurt. None had, so she answered the girl's questions. "I did not let him go. He will be dying just about now. When I picked him up, I injected a poison into his system that was designed to kill his type of mutation. That is what these things are. They are genetically mutated to be what you see before you. Watch, but don't touch." The twenty-seven girls watched as the Zerabubus type zoanoids that had attacked them melted away. Leaving no trace that they had ever been there.
"What do we do now, Miss Guyver Assassin?" The girl who seemed to be the only one that could speak yet asked.
"It is just Guyver4. And no I am not an alien. This is just armor. Well, I will take you to the boy scouts' camp, about a mile away from here. They can help you to get back to your parents in the morning. And they can get the Park Rangers out here to get your den mother's body. You have to tell everyone that it was a bear that attacked her. They will believe that the way she is cut up. They will question you about how big, and what color the bear was. You will tell them that you just ran away and did not see it. That she told you to run and hide. Then tell them that when you knew that it was gone, you came out and found her dead. I am sorry about that, girls. I could not get here fast enough to save her too." Guyver4 patted many of their heads and tired to comfort them, both with her presence and with her empathy.
"Does that mean that you work for the government? I will tell them when you get us there. And we will not tell anyone about you either. Why did they attack us anyway?" The girl persisted.
Guyver4 got them to pack up all of the equipment that they could and started them on the way to the boy scouts' camp. "They wanted to make you the way they were. That is what they do. You can never tell anyone about this, understand." Most of the girls nodded, a few could only moan agreement. Well at least some of them are coming out of shock. That is good. I like this one though. She really keeps her head. And no wonder, she is a strong mental talent, like me. "And no, I am not with the government. And what am I going to be calling you, young lady?"
"My name is Nilla Sandstone. That was my mother that got attacked by the bear that I never saw. I just wanted to know why she had to die." Nilla did sniff ever so slightly. Guyver4 knew that she was torn up inside, but that she felt she had to care for the other girls now that her mother could not. She would not let them see her cry. That would most likely panic them all again. Guyver4 admired Nilla very much for her strength.
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When Isis arrived at her lab in the morning, she looked around. "Where are the young ones that I was going to have to work on today. I would like to start with a few blood samples, if we are to get started." She told one of the lab assistants. It was still a bit strange for her to have her own lab. She was only nineteen after all.
"You did not hear? The zoanoid team that went out to get them did not come back. We think that they were killed by the female guyver." Was the only answer she got.
Kelley walked into Isis' lab a few minutes later. "I guess you know that there will be no young ones for you now. It has been confirmed that the guyver known as Guyver4 did in fact attack and kill the team of Zerabubus zoanoids sent out last night."
One of the lab assistants answered the phone when it rang. After speaking for a moment to the party on the other end he turned to Isis. "Dr. Isis, do you know a girl by the name of Nilla Sandstone?"
"I wonder what she wants. I told her before I left Japan that I would come and see her as soon as my work would let me. She is my goddaughter. Or at least that is what her mother, Brittany, who was my pin pal, told me. I have not been going to write them anymore since I am so close to where they live anyway."
The lab assistant handed her the phone. "Then you should hear this from her."
Isis nodded and took the phone. "Hi, Nilla. How are you?" Then Isis sat down rather hard. "Did the social worker say that I could come and get you? Or do you have other family that will be coming?" At least everything is going according to our plans. "Okay, Baby. Don't you worry about a thing. I will get in a helicopter and be there in an hour with papers from a judge remanding custody over to me. You just sit right there, and don't let them take you anywhere." She hung the phone up and just sat there for a moment.
Kelley was the first one to pipe up. "Isis, what is wrong? What do you mean custody?"
"Kelley, that was my goddaughter. I have never even met her or her mother, except through letters. She and her girl scout troop were the ones that the zoanoids were attacking last night. Nilla said some really crazy thing about a bear. Those zoanoids that never came back killed the only person that I thought of as family, a sister, and nearly did worse to the girl that I thought of as a niece. They are very luck that they are dead." Isis told them angrily. Then she turned to Kelley. "You have to help me. Kelley, I know that you are higher up in Cronos than you let on. I don't care just how high. But you have to know a judge that will give me custody papers for Nilla. Please, you have to help me."
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"So, this is Cronos, and where you live. Nice place, I like it. Hi, you must be Kelley, I am Nilla Sandstone." Nilla held out her hand to Kelley.
Kelley shook it and then asked her to go into the other room for a minute so she and Isis could talk business. After Nilla had gone, Kelley turned on Isis. "You do not intend to use her as zoanoid material, do you?"
"She is just like my own daughter now. I would sooner kill everyone the way that guyver did. I am sorry to be so rash, but that is how I feel. Do you think that I am wrong?" Isis looked into the eyes of her friend and just looked. She was not about to back down. Not even to the only zoanoid that she did not want to kill.
Kelley only nodded. "I would feel the same way. Don't worry about it. No family of a loyal Cronos employee is forced into the change. That is not how we do things here. My mother was a zoanoid, and when I found out about it, I came to Cronos and took her place willingly. So you have nothing to worry about. Oh, and I am Assistant Director Kelley. The second to the Director of Cronos' Death Valley Base. I just thought that you should know."
When Kelley left, Nilla came back out into the dinning room from the bedroom. So she is a zoanoid but not a Zerabubus type like the ones that attacked us. Okay, I got it. It was nice of you to take me in like this. It really was not your fault that they killed my mom."
"That is not even half of why I took you in, and you know that, Nilla. I do think that I can teach you a lot about what you can do with all of these talents you have."
"I know you can, Isis. I know you can teach me a lot. But I also know that you can't stay working for Cronos forever. What happens when they find out that you are Guyver4? What then? Where do you go? And where does that leave me?"
Isis sighed. "I do not know that yet. All I know is that you can't fall into their hands. I have seen Kelley in her zoanoid form. What they did to her. You do not ever want to be like that. I will make sure that you aren't. I promise. And I never break a promise."
Kelley sighed as she walked down the hall. She was very glad that the Director was gone on a business trip for a few months. That would give her time to find out what she was going to do about Guyver4, Isis, and Nilla. She might go ahead and tell Isis that she was a receiving telepath as a side effect of the change into being a hyper zoanoid. She could not send telepathic messages. But she also could not help but overhear one that was sent anywhere near her. She had to find some way of protecting her friend, and now that little girl. Kelley shook her head. She could not understand how Isis and Guyver4 could have such different personalities, and Isis not have some kind of multiple personalties disorder.
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This is the end of the second installment of Guyver4's adventures. I hope you enjoyed it, and the first of many great battle scenes. Remember to look forward to the third installment.
Written by Guyver4, Anita E. Singley