The last time that Guyver III had paid a
visit to the Arizona base, he had almost left it in ruins. And
that had only been one Guyver III; his counterpart had been off
conducting her own battle with the aid of the Libertus and the
Thunderbolts' Proto-Zoalord.
"Indeed. I am starting to think that it
is pointless for me to remain here; the Pillars of Heaven have
not been under any kind of abnormal threat. And, to be honest, I
am more concerned with the central seat of Chronos than I am
about our holdings in Washington. I have a bad feeling about
this."
"So, Gigantic Dark and those
Thunderbolts of his could be coming here soon? Do you think
Makishima's counterpart will be fighting with him?"
"There have been reports of Makishima's
counterpart being involved in her own battles with another group
of Thunderbolts. However, I expect that both of them will
participate in any major attacks made against Chronos
installations like this one. We cannot be so careless as to let
the central seat of Chronos be unguarded for any reason. At
least not until the Ark project has been completed and we have a
viable fallback position. Circumstances being what they are, I
will return to this facility shortly. In the meantime, I would
advise you to strengthen the defensive lines and keep a closer
watch on anyone trying to leave or enter the facility."
"Yes, Dr. Balkus, I will make sure to do
that. And we await your return with pleasure, sir."
Dr. Balkus 'hmm'ed slightly in response,
then the screen flickered off as the transmission was ended at
the source. Gustav paused for a moment, pondering how best to
carry out the orders he'd just been given. The voice of one of
the lower-level Zoanoids - just a grunt, really - broke into his
thoughts and gave him something else to think about.
"The VIP transport helicopter is about
to land; I'll open up the cliffside landing pad now, sir."
"Wait," Gustav said. "Tell me who's on
board."
"The passenger data lists him as a Dr.
Chan," the Zoanoid said. "Part of the Development Department; he
was one of the overseers for the construction of our large base
in Australia. He was expected to return today."
Gustav considered that for a moment; it
might have been just his own paranoia getting to him, but the
fact that he now knew that Guyver III and his counterpart were
coming back to make another attempt to attack the Arizona base
was wearing on his nerves. Maybe it really was just stress that
was making him so uneasy about the impending arrivals.
"Should I delay the landing until we can
get re-confirmation of who's in the transport?" the grunt asked,
evidentially seeing the indecision writ large on Gustav's face.
"No, I'm sure everything's fine. Open
the hangar and notify the Hangar Five personnel to be ready to
receive Dr. Chan and his crew."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Aboard the transport helicopter, Agito
and Akane Makishima were waiting with their regiment of Libertus
troops. And with Shizu Onuma, who functioned as their Zoalord
commander. But, at the moment, Akane's mind was not on the
impending attack. She was thinking about something odd that she
had remembered.
It was not so much the fact that she
remembered it as the fact that she had never experienced it in
the first place that was troubling her. The "memory" was of
Agito as a child – a child that she had never met – and her
twin. That was simply not what had happened, and she should not
have been thinking of Agito that way.
Agito was not someone that she could
trust; he was a temporary, uneasy ally at best. The only reason
that neither of them had tried to take command of the
Thunderbolts for themselves was the fact that none of them could
afford a power struggle at this time. Turning on one another for
their own personal gain would only make it easier for Chronos to
snap them up once they had inevitably depleted a substantial
amount of their recourses.
It would not do to tell Agito about what
she had been "remembering"; not only would it make her appear
weak and mentally unfit for command, it would give Agito
something to hold over her.
Feeling it through her legs when they
landed, Akane moved toward the landing ramp. Their Libertus army
was prepared to move out, Agito was at the head of their attack
force, and Akane moved to join him.
+How much resistance do you think
we can expect from the personnel of this base?+
Akane asked.
+Not enough to give us any substantial
amount of trouble taking what we want.+
+Of course not,+
Akane said, standing beside Agito as the transport helicopter
settled to the ground.
"Dr. Chan, on behalf of everyone here at
the Arizona Central Command Base, I would like to welcome you to
the central seat of Chronos."
Agito smiled thinly. "Akane, do you know
of anyone named Chan?"
"No, Agito," she said, moving to stand
more closely beside him, smiling down with predatory pleasure at
the now-visibly-cowering Chronos personnel. "I don't. Though
perhaps that was the name of the man we killed when we
appropriated his transport."
"You really didn't have to go to all of
this trouble just to welcome us into your midst," Agito said.
"Who are those two?" the taller Chronos
scientist asked, looking between her and Agito.
Surreptitiously reaching into her right
pocket, Akane closed her hand around the grip of the .45 she had
brought with her for just this sort of attack. True, it was not
designed to work on Zoanoids, but the unprocessed humans that
were a part of Chronos' scientific division would be affected
well enough.
"Wait, I've heard of these two," the
rotund scientist said, beginning to seem genuinely frightened at
last. "That's Agito Makishima! And Akane; reports stated she's
his sister!"
+Well, I was wondering what
Chronos would come up with to explain away the fact that both of
us look identical,+ Agito
commented.
+Yes; rather a convenient ruse,
considering the circumstances.+
"You mean those two are the Makishima
twins? The leaders of the Zeus Thunderbolt resistance force?!"
one of the anonymous, jumpsuited Zoanoids in the back of the
room demanded, sounding as if he was on the verge of a panic
attack.
That would have been an
interesting sight, Akane
thought, with a soft chuckle.
"We must get word to Dr. Balkus at
once!" the rotund scientist shouted, staring in fearful shock at
them and their Libertus troops. "Hurry! We must send the reports
while we still can!"
Before any of the Zoanoids could make so
much as a move toward any of the hangar's many exits, Shizu had
stepped forward and taken command of every Zoanoid in the room.
Even – surprisingly enough – the taller, more slender Chronos
scientist. Without Balkus there to hamper her efforts, Shizu was
easily able to take control of the Zoanoids in the immediate
area.
"Now you are cut off from Chronos' aid;
everything seems to be going according to plan, eh sister?"
Akane met Agito's gaze, wondering if he
too was starting to remember things that had never happened.
"Indeed it is, brother. What do you propose we do with him? He
certainly won't be controllable the way that these Chronos-made
Zoanoids are."
"Easily taken care of."
A uniformed Libertus soldier brushed
gently past her, inclining his head in a gesture of respect as
he made his way down the landing ramp and onto the concrete
floor where the Zoanoid stood holding the sole human in the room
in his grip.
"Finish it," Agito said with cold
satisfaction.
Akane took a moment to watch as the
man's head imploded under the pressure that their Libertus
applied to him.
"Let's move out now," she suggested. "It
won't take long for Balkus to arrive, and I for one would prefer
to keep him unaware of our presence for as long as possible."
"Shizu, gather our forces and follow
me," Agito said, walking just slightly ahead of Akane. "We'll
take the main freight elevator."
It was simpler to let him take command;
to make the majority of the decisions in the campaigns that they
conducted. It would be easy to learn his style of command that
way, what contingencies he thought to plan for; which would make
dealing with him all the more uncomplicated when the time came.
There was still the matter of Shizu, but for the moment Akane
was content to wait.
Shizu's presence wouldn't be a factor
forever.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
As they made their way onto the freight
elevator, Agito could not help but watch his counterpart
surreptitiously out of the corner of his eye. She was starting
to become something of a non-presence, carefully secluding
herself when she was not developing some new weapon, standing
back while he himself took command of their combined forces. And
all the while growing ever more observant.
Frankly, it was starting to unnerve him.
Both the fact that his counterpart
was watching him so closely – she had to be planning something,
because he
would have been planning something in the same situation – and
because his own mind was starting to betray him. Not in the
sense that he could no longer remember his goals, but in the
sense that he was starting to remember things that had never –
and could never have – happened.
Glancing back at Akane; Agito found that
he could remember her not only as the young woman she was, but
as a young girl with her hair tied up into two pigtails, fussing
over his younger self as she wrapped a bandage around his
scraped left knee. He could remember that Shizu had enjoyed
braiding Akane's hair, then combing it out and putting it up in
pigtails because she thought it was cute.
He could also remember Akane's patient
endurance of Shizu's ministrations. Only none of it had
happened, so why the hell was he remembering it so clearly?!
Deciding to think about that later – or
never, since bringing it up with Akane would only signal that he
was weak, and then she would try to take command of their forces
– Agito turned his attention back to the group of Libertus that
he was commanding, just as the elevator they were all standing
in game to a sudden, grinding halt.
"It appears that Balkus has finally
noticed our arrival," Akane said calmly.
"Yes," Agito glanced around at the
waiting Libertus. "We'll exit here, then. Libertus, move out!"
They leapt from the elevator, even as he
and Akane called their respective Guyvers.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
With Hayami securely on his back, Sho
continued on his way up to the laboratory where Aptom and Yukari
were most likely being held. At least according to everything
that Hayami had said. Once they had reached the top of the
shaft, Sho set Hayami down and landed.
There was another air vent in front of
them, and Sho paused in front of it to consult with Hayami.
"We're on the ninety-seventh floor now;
Aptom and Yukari should be here, right?"
"They should be," Hayami said, nodding.
"If not, I have a few other ideas. But let's not get ahead of
ourselves."
Sho nodded, silently echoing the
sentiment. "If we come in through this air duct, we should be
able to bypass the security that they placed around the
laboratory."
"Yes," Hayami said, nodding. "Sho, can
you try to sense what's going on on the other side of this
wall?"
Sho focussed the Guyver's hyper-sensors
forward, scanning deeply to see just what the situation was in
the deeper areas of the ninety-seventh level. "There are guards,
positioned every ten meters, along all of the corridors. There
are also two agents in place at the entrance to the fourth
laboratory."
"Only two? That's kind of strange,"
Hayami muttered. "What other kind of defenses are in place?"
"The walls of the laboratory are made of
a special kind of steel that's four-hundred millimeters thick,"
Sho said, continuing his scan. "And there is a net of varying
types of alarm systems protecting the doors themselves."
"I guess it's a good thing we're not
going in through the doors, then," Hayami muttered. "What about
the setup inside the laboratory?"
"I can sense a figure in the center of
the room that might be Aptom," Sho said, trying to make the
mental image resolve but only succeeding in frustrating himself.
"I can't make it out all that clearly, so I think it might be
petrifying quickly. There's also something else in the room..."
Sho trailed off as he looked deeper into the laboratory; what he
sensed there made him feel as if someone had rammed a dagger
made of ice straight into his entrails. "There's a
processing-tank in that room!"
Hayami started violently. "Are you
sure?"
"I'm almost positive," Sho said grimly,
scanning more deeply just so he could be absolutely sure about
the matter. "There's only one of them, but there's someone
inside it. There's also something else..."
"What is it, Sho?"
"I'm not sure," he said. "It's been
happening ever since we came into Cloud Gate; I keep getting
this distortion in the Guyver's sensors. I can't seem to see
through it."
"I'll admit that I don't know very much
about the Guyver's sensor system, but do you suppose that there
could be some interference from the electronics inside the
building?"
"That could be it," he said, nodding.
"Anyway, we should go rescue Aptom now. And try to find where
they're holding Yukari."
Climbing into the vent, Sho started
forward. Once he'd gotten his body fully inside, he heard Hayami
climbing into the vent behind him. Through the grates, he could
see a few of the Combat Agents that Chronos had placed
throughout the corridors on this floor. Once they had made it to
an unguarded area at the back of the laboratory, Sho carefully
lifted the grate free from it's moorings and lowered himself to
the ground. Hayami did the same, managing to set the grate back
in place before he settled himself to the floor.
"The Fourth Laboratory is just on the
other side of this wall."
"Right," Sho nodded.
Sending a burst of concentrated sonic
energy at the wall in front of them, Sho trusted Hayami to tell
him if there were any Zoanoids coming. As the wall in front of
them buckled and slowly collapsed, crumbling into metallic dust,
Sho stopped screaming; that stopped the sonic waves. Nodding to
Hayami, Sho stepped through the hole and into the laboratory.
What he saw there frightened him; it was
like nothing he'd been expecting. Aptom was there, still frozen
in stone like he'd been expecting, but it wasn't Aptom that drew
his attention. What Sho was focussed on the figure in the
processing-tank. It wasn't a Zoanoid, but it was... it was...
"Yukari..." reaching out to touch the
shell of the processing-tank, Sho found himself almost overcome
with rage.
Chronos had performed these sick
experiments on his father and on Mr. Murakami; they'd done the
same thing to Yukari's father, and to Ms. Murakami. He was not
going to let them do the same kind of horrible things to Yukari
as they had done to so many other people! Raising his fist, Sho
prepared to bring it down hard on the processing-tank.
"Sho! You can't!" Hayami shouted,
grabbing his wrist. "If that's the kind of fluid I think it is,
then any sudden changes to her environment could kill Yukari
instantly!"
Sho relaxed, appalled at what his anger
had almost made him do. He couldn't afford to be reckless; not
when the lives of his friends hinged on his actions.
"Then what can we do, Hayami?" he asked,
looking between the frozen, stone form of Aptom and the
unconscious form of Yukari. "Is there anything we can do to help
them?"
"There should be a... Good, I found the
controls," Hayami said, after a minute of searching. "I should
be able to alter the composition of the fluid; and deactivate
whatever traps they've set on those wires attached to Aptom."
Sho felt slightly guilty for
forgetting Aptom in his urgent worry over what – he hoped was
not
– being done to Yukari. Still, Aptom wasn't in so much immediate
danger as Yukari was now. Listening to Hayami type, Sho tried
not to fidget so much. Hayami would find a way to save them,
both Aptom and Yukari, and then they could all go back home.
Or, at least back to the place that
functioned as a home for all of them.
The sense of something on the edge
of his perception startled Sho out of his worried contemplation.
It's happening again. Why do I
keep sensing that there's something in the room that I can't
see? I've felt this ever since we first entered Cloud Gate, but
never as strong as now. What's so special about this room?
Looking around, and scanning to see if
he could locate the source of the distortion, Sho stabbed out
with the Vibration Blade on his right arm. Aiming at a patch of
what looked like empty air, Sho was rewarded with the pained
scream of whatever it was that had been following them. The
blood that splattered over the floor, along with the
just-beginning-to-become-visible severed arm lying on the floor
amidst the pool of blood, let Sho know that his instinct had
been right.
I knew something had to be following us!
The Guyver's sensors were picking something up, I just wasn't
able to tell what it was that they were detecting.
"Sho! What the hell's going on here?!"
"That thing was following us, Hayami,"
he said, pointing at the Zoanoid that had just appeared before
the two of them.
It looked like some spectacularly odd
cross between a lizard, some animals that Sho couldn't identify,
and a human wearing some sort of mask. Sho didn't know just what
kind of Zoanoid this new creature was, but there was no doubt in
Sho's mind that it was dangerous. All Chronos-produced Zoanoids
were; it was just a matter of finding out how dangerous they
were and then dealing with them. That was what he had always
done, what Yukari had done, up to the point where Mr. Murakami
had... taken her.
"How the hell did you find me,
Guyver?! My disguise was supposed to be
flawless!"
"I couldn't see you," Sho saw no harm in
admitting. "But the Guyver's sensors kept telling me that there
was something just out of my range of perception. And the
strange thing was that the feeling got stronger all the time
that I was in Cloud Gate, but I only realized that there was a
Zoanoid following me when Hayami and I entered this laboratory.
That was when I knew that you were after me."
"Sho, do you mean to tell me that this
Zoanoid has been following us ever since we first entered Cloud
Gate?!" Hayami demanded, sounding sick with worry.
"That's right!" The Zoanoid
crowed, laughing. "And now it's too late for the both of you! My
masters will never let you escape! I was sent to make certain
that you didn't encounter any resistance to your entry here,"
the Zoanoid laughed. "This laboratory is about to become your
tomb!"
There came a sudden, ominous crackling
sound then. Like something electronic was slowly starting to
overload. Turning to look behind him, since that was where the
sound seemed to be coming from, Sho found that it was indeed the
sound of electrical equipment overloading. The processing-tank
that held Yukari was starting to vibrate, rattling and even
starting to crack in places. But what was worse, what was so
much worse was what was happening to Aptom.
His body was starting to crack apart,
crumbling into pieces and falling to rest on the dais he'd been
suspended over. Screaming, Sho ran at the dais, wanting nothing
more than to pull Aptom down and try to save him in any way that
he could. Burning pain lanced through his body, and Sho screamed
as agony set fire to his nerves. Out of the corner of his eye,
Sho saw Yukari sagging almost to the floor, held up only by the
cables and monitoring devices that had been attached to her
body.
She looked like a puppet with tangled
strings, and Sho made up his mind about what he was going to do:
if he couldn't help Aptom, and it certainly seemed that way,
then he would at least make an effort to get Yukari out of that
horrible tank that Chronos had put her in. Who knew what kind of
things Chronos was planning to do to her?
"Hayami, please try to help Aptom," Sho
called, even as he hurried over to the shattered processing-tank
and started tearing off the monitors that had been attached to
Yukari's skin.
Hayami had said that she might die if
taken out of the processing-tank too soon, but she was a Guyver.
She had to survive; she had to survive so that they could defeat
Chronos, and so that they could be reunited with Mr. Murakami
and his sister. She had to be all right. She just had to be!
"Yukari?" Sho called, gently brushing
some of her soaking hair out of her eyes. "Yukari, please wake
up."
The sound of stone shattering drew his
attention the way nothing else could. Gathering Yukari in his
arms, Sho turned to look at Hayami. "What's going on?!"
"Something's wrong! I can't cancel the
sequence!"
"Aptom?" he breathed, watching in horror
as the frozen form of his friend crumbled into irreparable
shards and clattered onto the dais.
Hugging Yukari's unconscious form almost
convulsively, Sho stepped forward to stare in numb shock at what
remained of Aptom. He wanted to do something; fall to his knees,
scream, maybe start sobbing, but the fact remained that Yukari
still needed him. He'd have to be quiet, for her sake at least;
she would be weak from spending so much time asleep.
Chronos had probably put her in some
kind of stasis so they could interrogate her later. That was
probably what the processing-tank had been for; it was the only
way they could hope to keep her from waking up without having to
constantly drug her. That was probably it.
The feel of warm flesh pressed against
him reminded Sho that there was one thing that he had to deal
with before he could get Yukari out of this horrible place: he
would have to find some clothes for her to wear. Or at least
something to wrap her in so she wouldn't get cold.
The sound of something scraping
against the metallic floors of the laboratory caught his
attention then, and when he looked he found that the Zoanoid who
had been leading them into this room – this
trap
– had disappeared again. He could also sense something else,
something that made him a lot more hopeful.
"What- how could this have failed this
badly?" Hayami asked, his voice rough and hollow. "How could
this have happened?"
"We haven't failed yet, Hayami," Sho
said, holding Yukari close as he stared at the broken stone
shell that had encased Aptom.
A grunt and a scream of pain came from
behind him just before he could start to wonder where the
remainder of Aptom had gotten to. He and Hayami both turned,
just as the Zoanoid that had been hiding in the laboratory with
them was forced back into visibility, struggling against some
unseen opponent. Though Sho had a feeling he knew just who that
"unseen opponent" would turn out to be.
It's good to have you back with
us, Aptom, Sho though, holding
Yukari close as a humanoid arm forced its way out of the stump
that was all that remained of the Zoanoid's left arm.
"What- what the hell?! What's happening
to me?!" the Zoanoid demanded, looking terrified of the hand
that now stuck out of his arm. "I can't move!"
Sho knew how the Zoanoid was feeling, he
knew it and he didn't care. Those monsters had murdered
countless thousands of people, they worked for the organization
that had all but murdered his father. These ones, the ones who
worked for Chronos voluntarily, didn't deserve his pity or
sympathy.
As another blob of flesh grew out of the
Zoanoid's neck, slowly taking the shape of Aptom's head, Sho
wished for a moment that he could smile physically instead of
just mentally. Aptom was going to be back with them soon, Yukari
was safe; this was a good day.
"How did he manage to survive, though?"
Hayami asked, finally breaking the awed silence.
"I think that there were some cells of
his that managed to survive," Sho said. "Or maybe there were
only a few dormant cells that were alive inside that stone
casing, and the electricity provided them with enough energy
that they were able to multiply to the point where they could
move on their own. And since this Zoanoid was close enough to be
sensed, that's what Aptom used to regenerate himself."
The Zoanoid's head dissolved slowly,
melting into Aptom's neck with a soft sort of scream.
"Aptom," Sho said, relived at the sight
of his friend starting to look more like himself.
Even the fact that he wasn't wearing any
clothes, like he had been the first time Sho had actually gotten
a clear look at Aptom's true form, didn't disturb him. Hayami
and Yukari were in the same state; and Aptom had never really
seemed interested in wearing clothes in the first place.
"Aptom, are you feeling all right now?"
Sho asked, when Aptom continued to stand completely motionless
for over a minute. "We should really get out of here quickly if
we want to avoid Chronos' patrols."
Aptom raised his hand, and for a moment
Sho wondered just what he was thinking. Then he found himself
roughly shoved backward, even as he felt Yukari being pulled out
of his arms. Then, before he could even start to think of
something to say, Aptom's hand clamped down on his face.
"A-Aptom, what are you doing?" Hayami
demanded. "Don't you even recognize us?!"
"Stop! Aptom, please! You have to stop
this!"
Sho, feeling as if the skin of his
face was being peeled off layer by layer, started to get an
inkling of what it was that Aptom was trying to do.
He's... trying to absorb the Guyver?
Is that even possible? Yukari! He could be trying to absorb her!
Without a Guyver to protect her, it was
possible that Aptom would be able to absorb Yukari the way he
was trying to do with him. He had to protect her, no matter what
happened to him!
When the tingling in his forehead that
always preceded the Control Medal's activation surged through
his brain, Sho saw Aptom stagger backwards, his eyes wide and
his mouth open in a silent scream. Yukari's limp, unconscious
form dangled from his left arm, and Sho couldn't help but wonder
how badly she had been worked over by Chronos to be so tired.
Maybe they had... but no, that was
impossible.
"Are you all right, Sho?"
"I'm fine, Hayami. When The Control
Medal detected Aptom's invading cells, it activated one of its
defense systems."
"Do you think this is really the Aptom
that we know? Why would he try to attack you, and why would he
take Yukari like that?"
"I don't know," Sho said, just as
Aptom's right hand began to distort into a kind of bio-weapon
that Sho had never seen before.
"What the- Look out!" Hayami shouted,
just as Aptom fired.
Sho threw himself to the ground, just as
Aptom's blast burned the air over his head. Wondering just what
was going on, Sho looked up just in time to see Aptom's shot
burn through the reinforced steel of the laboratory wall, and
kept on going. He didn't know just how many walls Aptom's beam
punched through on its way out, but he ended up being able to
see dark sky and bright stars through the hole Aptom had made.