Thinking back to what he had actually
been doing late last night, and continued to do until early this
morning, Gyou considered the progress that he had made on the
Murakami boy’s Zoalord body. After all the work he had done,
Gyou finally considered it finished. He had given the boy thirty
Zoacrystals, not counting his main Control Zoacrystal, since
Murakami’s son was not going to be some weak Proto-Zoalord. The
next thing Gyou had done was to track down another one of his
loyal scientists and discreetly question the man about the
genetic differences between a Proto-Zoalord and a real Zoalord.
It wouldn’t do to have the Murakami boy
die after six months just because Gyou hadn’t taken the time to
learn about the physiology of his young charge’s soon-to-be new
species. Gyou had learned that the only thing separating a
Zoalord from a Proto-Zoalord was the Control Zoacrystal. Lacking
that, the energies contained in the other Zoacrystals would
cause progressively greater damage to the Proto-Zoalord’s body.
It was just this kind of damage that
eventually overwhelmed even the extensive recuperative powers of
the Proto-Zoalord, causing them to die. His scientist had said
that it was theoretically possible to continually reprocess a
Proto-Zoalord once they reached the end of their lifespan, but
Gyou was unwilling to waste time and resources on such a thing
when it would be much simpler to make the boy into a full
Zoalord. Besides, full Zoalords were a great deal more powerful
than their Proto-Zoalord counterparts.
As he made his way back to the elevators
that would take him down to the Murakami boy’s ‘resting place’,
Gyou considered Aptom again. The Lost Unit, while interesting in
and of himself, could prove to be a threat to Gyou’s own plans
as well as those of Chronos. Aptom, while a useful distraction
at this early stage, would of course have to be eliminated once
Balkus and all of Alkanphel’s other supporters were dead.
It would be an interesting fight, since
Gyou had received reports from his spies within Balkus’ research
division that Aptom was able to improve his own body and
fighting abilities by literally absorbing any of the Zoanoids
and Hyper Zoanoids that were unfortunate enough to cross his
path. Gyou wasn’t at all eager to personally find out whether or
not Aptom would be able to absorb a Zoalord like him. True,
Zoalord physiology was different from that of a Zoanoid, but
since Aptom had been absorbing Hyper Zoanoids of late, Gyou
wasn’t sure that the physiological differences would be enough
of a protection for him.
No, Aptom would have to be disposed of
soon after all of the supporters of Alkanphel had been dealt
with. Keeping that in mind, Gyou stepped into the express
elevator and closed the door. Since all of the security
checkpoints were staffed by Zoanoids, with only the occasional
human overseer, Gyou knew that he would have a relatively easy
time getting through them. After all, only a Lost Unit could
ignore commands from a Zoalord.
XxXxX
As Alkanphel made his way closer to the
place called Mt. Minakami, he pondered on that strange vibration
that he had sensed coming from under the mountain itself. There
were no doubts in Alkanphel’s mind that the vibration had been
caused by the dormant Advent craft that was buried under the
mountain. Still, the First Zoalord was curious as to what had
caused the craft to become active again even for so short a
time.
There were indeed some things that could
cause a frequency resonance between the craft and the Zoacrystal
of one of his Zoalords, but Alkanphel had not thought that any
of his children would find those artifacts. There had been a few
reports that had reached him of Guyvers in this area, but since
Hamilcal had seemed to have the problem well in hand Alkanphel
had not concerned himself with that. What did concern him was
the mysterious but short-lived awakening of the Advent craft.
Could Hamilcal have discovered the
Remover? No. He would have contacted me immediately if he had
found something that important.
Alkanphel had not told Hamilcal, or
any of his other children for that matter, about the Remover or
what it did. Perhaps that was a mistake, at the very least he
knew that Hamilcal could have been trusted with the secrets of
the Unit Remover. It would certainly have made dealing with the
Guyver insurrections a great deal easier for his Second Zoalord.
However, since he wanted to conceal his presence and intentions
from both Hamilcal and Reholt, who was also staying at Mt.
Minakami, Alkanphel decided that he would discuss the Remover at
a later time.
Hamilcal had already informed him of the
suspicions that he harbored against Reholt, and Alkanphel had
had to agree with his Second Zoalord. Reholt had been entirely
too ambitious, and Alkanphel had almost rejected him for the
Zoalord process out of hand. Only the threat of the Advents’
return had given a human named Reichman Wilhelm the chance to
become the Twelfth Zoalord.
It had been that way with a few of the
others as well, most notably Luggnagg De Krumeggnik. Alkanphel
had only heard second-hand reports of that human’s processing,
but Hamilcal had said that he had been extremely eager to become
the Ninth Zoalord. As a result of that, Alkanphel had not felt
truly comfortable with having Luggnagg as a part of the
hierarchy. But now was not the time to think about such things.
As he continued on his way to Mt.
Minakami, Alkanphel started to feel short, sharp bursts of fear
and pain coming from in front of him and to the right. Turning
his attention that way Alkanphel managed to catch a last
glimpse, through the eyes of a dying Hyper Zoanoid, of the
creature that was attacking them. It was the same creature that
Alkanphel had thought destroyed when his Gravity Bullet had
obliterated most of the creature’s body.
Apparently, this experimental Zoanoid
was stronger than he had appeared to be at first. Alkanphel
would even have been willing to say with some confidence that
this creature had been an experimental Hyper Zoanoid. It was
also a safe assumption that this one had been a Lost Unit also.
That was the only way to really explain the way that the
creature had been able to resist Alkanphel when he had given
those other Zoanoids the order to self-destruct.
That made the creature even more
dangerous than Alkanphel had first suspected he would be. And
that made it all the more important for Alkanphel to destroy him
permanently. A creature as dangerous as this Lost Unit Hyper
Zoanoid could not be allowed to exist. His mind made up,
Alkanphel turned and headed for the last place that he had seen
through the eyes of the Hyper Zoanoid just before it had died.
Even with his telepathy, Alkanphel could
only barely sense the Lost Unit, and even then he could not read
the thoughts or even the intent of the former Hyper Zoanoid.
Alkanphel was slightly annoyed by that fact, but the Zoalord
knew that there was really nothing he could do about that.
Sometimes even Chronos’ superior bioengineering technology could
be hindered by the unique aspects of certain humans.
Clearing the last stand of trees that
blocked his sight of the Lost Unit, Alkanphel charged up another
Gravity Bullet and fired it at his back. Apparently the Lost
Unit had developed some extra senses from all of the Hyper
Zoanoids he had absorbed, since he was able to dodge faster than
Alkanphel would have expected of him. The scarred face of the
Lost Unit registered surprise, and then anger as he evidently
recognized Alkanphel for who he was.
"You again! What, wasn’t killing me once
enough for you?!" the Lost Unit demanded.
"I have evidently not killed you,
as you are standing right in front of me. But rest assured, Lost
Unit, I will
finish the job this time," Alkanphel said calmly.
"My name’s Aptom you bastard!
Remember it, since it’s the last name
you’re
ever going to hear!"
"Aptom," Alkanphel said calmly, trying
the name out. "Interesting."
Aptom’s scarred face clearly showed his
contempt for Alkanphel, and Alkanphel could feel his own
features mimicking Aptom’s expression almost perfectly.
"Is that all you have to say?!" the Lost
Unit demanded.
"What else is there?" Alkanphel asked
calmly.
With an inarticulate roar, the Lost Unit
launched himself at the Zoalord of Zoalords. Moving so swiftly
that he would have only registered as a blur to the eyes of the
Lost Unit attacking him, Alkanphel managed to get himself into
position to launch another attack. His Concussion Wave, a
powerful blast of compressed air, tore off the Lost Unit’s right
arm. Alkanphel was not so arrogant as to think that the loss of
merely an arm would be enough to stop a creature that had
somehow managed to reconstitute a whole body out of the few
parts that he had left behind.