Deep in the lower levels of Mt.
Minakami, Dr. Hamilcal Balkus was considering the merits of
resurrecting the Hyper Zoanoid Team Five again. True, they had
all been slaughtered in the battle at Chronos Japan’s secondary
headquarters, but that had never been the only Team Five in
existence. The original members of the second Hyper Zoanoid Team
Five had been created to fight against that accursed Zoalord
Prototype, Murakami.
They were also very useful in and of
themselves, since the five of them were extremely loyal to one
another and all of them were intelligent to varying degrees. In
fact, the new Team Five had replaced the old one with complete
success by this time. In the end, there was really only one way
to best serve the interests of Chronos. Inputting a command on
the computer console that stood in front of him, Balkus watched
as the five processing-tanks in front of him were drained of
their fluid.
Once they were fully empty, the tanks
themselves retracted back into the ceiling. Zancrus was the
first to open his eyes, but the other members of Team Five were
soon awake and stirring as well.
"What are your orders, Dr. Balkus?"
Zektor asked, cutting straight to the point as usual.
"You five are to go and retrieve
Aptom. He had been sent after Guyver I to eliminate him, but has
not reported in at all since then. I want that arrogant Lost
Unit dragged
back here if necessary!" Balkus hissed, trying to control his
temper.
It was not Team Five who annoyed
him, but Aptom, who he could no longer sense even
with
his supremely developed telepathy.
"Don’t worry, doc," Zancrus said,
grinning at Balkus with admirable self-confidence. "We’ll drag
him back here by his hair if you want us to."
"I do not think that that will be
necessary, Zancrus," Balkus said, smiling and chuckling softly.
"When do we leave, Dr. Balkus?" Darzerb
inquired.
"After all of you get dressed," Balkus
said.
Darzerb had a brilliant mind when it
came to tactics or large-scale analysis, but at times he did
tend to overlook the obvious. Of course, Elegen and Gaster made
up for that deficiency with their tendency to focus on the
details. All in all, Team Five was both physically and mentally
well suited for one another. Zektor nodded to Balkus, and he and
the rest of Team Five filed out of the room.
Well, that’s one less problem I
have to deal with, Balkus
mused. Team Five can handle
things with that Lost Unit on their own.
Turning away from the processing-tanks as they settled
themselves back on their bases, Balkus considered his other
problem. It had been increasingly obvious of late that Commander
Gyou was up to something. This latest incident with the
monitoring of that child in the forest was just more proof that
Gyou had his own agenda.
Contrary to what Gyou himself believed,
Balkus was not the senile old fool that he pretended to be
sometimes for the Twelfth Zoalord’s benefit. He knew that Gyou
was hiding something, something more than most of the other
Zoalords who served Alkanphel. It was not just the personal
thoughts and desires that all Zoalords kept from one another as
a matter of personal privacy.
No, this was something more, and
something undoubtedly much more dangerous to Alkanphel’s cause
if Gyou was trying to hide it this deeply. Balkus had known for
some time that Gyou was extremely ambitious, had known it even
since before Gyou had even become the Twelfth Zoalord. The man
he had been, Reichman Wilhelm, had also been very ambitious.
Reichman had almost literally jumped at the chance to become a
Zoalord.
Alkanphel had been wary of humans like
Reichman Wilhelm, but Alkanphel had also accepted the fact that
there were not many humans who possessed the strength of mind
and body to become Zoalords without the less than desirable
tendencies like the man Wilhelm had had. As he thought further
on the matter of what Gyou might have planned, Balkus came upon
yet another set of processing-tanks that held clones of the
Hyper Zoanoid Team Five.
Their mental patterns had already been
established, and bodies were an easy thing to create with
Chronos’ superior bioengineering technology. Turning away from
the clones of Team Five, Balkus headed back up to the
Information Control Sector. He already knew where Commander Gyou
was, of course, but watching the way he fought the Guyvers and
that prototype of his would perhaps provide some useful
information.
Stepping inside one of the many
elevators that ran between the surface and the lower levels of
Mt. Minakami, Balkus looked out over the armies of Zoanoids that
he could see being prepared to take their places within Chronos’
ranks. This was the goal that he and Alkanphel had worked so
long and hard to achieve: the army that would protect this world
from the inevitable return of the Advents.
Frowning, Balkus reflected that if the
Guyvers and their little rebel group could know of Chronos’ true
intentions, then perhaps they could be persuaded to aid rather
than oppose the company. With what the organization had done to
Murakami and Fukamachi, it might be somewhat harder for the two
of them to come to such a decision, though. But sometimes some
things just had to be put aside in pursuit of a larger goal.
This was the truth that Balkus had
learned over his many long years of life. And with the power of
those two Guyvers, the Advents would have an even harder time of
trying to reclaim this planet from its rightful owners.
But Lisker once made the offer to
Guyver I, I heard, and Fukamachi refused it. Though perhaps,
there is another way… Balkus
had seen secondhand just how protective the Fukamachi boy was of
those that managed to get close to him.
Balkus thought of such things as a
ridiculous weakness, and even more so now that he had seen the
kinds of things that the Fukamachi boy would put himself
through. Guyver I had nearly gotten himself killed in Team
Five’s attack on his school, transforming and going out to fight
for people he only knew distantly. At least Guyver III had more
sense than that, and the boy seemed far more intelligent in
other ways, also.
Perhaps it would be better to
concentrate on the elimination of Sho Fukamachi and Masaki
Murakami, and then to deal with Agito Makashima later.
XxXxX
It wasn’t true… it just couldn’t be
happening. But it was. And it wouldn’t stop.
Zancrus was whistling again.
"Zancrus, shut up," Zektor ordered for
what felt like the seventh time in as many minutes.
His fellow Hyper Zoanoid blew a
raspberry at him, but did as he was told. Zektor wondered just
how long that would last this
time. Not very long as it turned out, since Zancrus started up
again not long after Zektor had managed to get used to just the
sounds of Team Five’s footfalls again. Flipping a pinecone – or
something that looked a lot like one – into his hand with his
left foot, Zektor considered whether or not to pitch it at
Zancrus’ head.
His momentary dilemma was resolved
when Gaster, obviously getting fed up with Zancrus’ antics as
well, stopped walking suddenly. Zancrus crashed into Gaster’s
back with an audible thump
and a soft ooof.
Zektor chuckled low in his throat as Zancrus made a show of
dusting himself off and checking for any injuries.
"What the hell was that for?" Zancrus
demanded, though his voice lacked any real malice.
"What do you think it was for, you
mantis-faced loony?"
"Oh, so now I’m a loony, am I?"
Before Gaster, Zancrus, or anyone else
could come up with a suitable retort, Darzerb grabbed both
Zancrus and Gaster by their necks and hoisted them up till their
feet left the ground.
"Calm down you two. Remember what we
were sent out here to do," the large Hyper Zoanoid said, looking
at both of his smaller teammates in turn.
"We’re here to kick Aptom’s butt and
drink beer," Elegen piped up. "And, since we don’t seem to have
any beer at the moment, I guess that just leaves us with the
butt kicking."
"Elegen, you talk too much," Zektor said
affectionately, while Darzerb set Zancrus and Gaster back on the
ground.
"Or maybe it’s just that Darzerb and
Gaster don’t talk enough," Elegen said, grinning.
Darzerb shook his head, and Gaster
flipped Elegen off when Zektor looked away for a second.
Something wasn’t right. Despite the fact that they hadn’t seen
any evidence that the Guyvers or Aptom had passed this way,
Zektor was starting to feel more and more uneasy. What made the
feeling even worse was the fact that there wasn’t anything in
the surrounding environment that would even suggest that there
was any reason for him to be feeling this way.
It wasn’t as if Zektor possessed any
extraordinary senses, like Dr. Balkus or Commander Gyou. He
couldn’t even feel subtle vibrations in the air, the way that
Zancrus could when he was in his Hyper Zoanoid form. The trees
were moving slightly, but even that could be explained away by
the strong breeze that Zektor could feel blowing across his
skin. It was Elegen’s strong voice that broke the silence, like
Zektor had almost been expecting, but what he said wasn’t at all
what Zektor would have expected.
"All right, which one of you just threw
a pinecone at me?!"