Ryan sat in the doctor’s office, shirt off, waiting for Dr. Nathaniel to arrive. The two weird growths on his back, between and just slightly above his shoulder blades, had worried his mom enough that she had taken a day off from work, and pulled him out of school for the day. Ryan thought it was just some rash, but he was still happy to have a day out of school.

Finally, the doctor made his appearance.

"So, Mr. Crouger, what seems to be the problem today?"

"There are these two things that grew on my back. Mom noticed them this morning," Ryan said. "Could you just tell her that this is just some rash that’s going to go away?" Ryan smirked. "Or maybe you could tell her that it’s an infectious rash that’ll take about five weeks to clear up."

Dr. Nathaniel laughed. "You’d like me to do that, wouldn’t you, Ryan?" He laughed again. "All right, turn around you little wiseguy. Let me see these things you speak of so eloquently."

Ryan turned around, displaying his back to Dr. Nathaniel, who, on his part, nearly choked on his own tongue. This isn’t any rash! Touching one of the marks on Ryan’s back, Dr. Nathaniel found that he knew exactly what he was looking at. It was impossible, but there it was, sitting right in front of his eyes.

I thought all the Guyvers had already been activated! But Dr. Nathaniel knew that what he was staring at were unmistakably the marks that a Guyver unit left on its host. Boost-stimulus tissue—that’s what the higher-ups call it. It’s what connects the Guyver to its host. Using the host’s brainwaves, the Guyver stays in contact. That’s what I was told.

Staring at his patient’s back, Dr. Nathaniel wondered just what to tell Ryan. His first loyalty had to be to Chronos, but there was also the matter of Ryan Crouger and his family being some of his best friends. He had been Ryan’s doctor ever since the boy had been a baby, having helped to deliver Ryan when he had been born.

Dr. Nathaniel could still remember the boy’s bright green eyes, opening suddenly and trying to take in everything at once. He didn’t usually take a personal interest in his patients, but he and Norman Crouger – Ryan’s father – had gone to medical school together. Norman had even invited him over to Ryan’s coming-home party, and he’d stayed close to the family ever since.

All of this was running through his mind as Dr. Ethan Nathaniel stared down at the boost-stimulus tissue on Ryan’s back. At last, taking a deep breath, he realized just what he had to do.

"I’ll be back in just a few minutes; stay here," Dr. Nathaniel said, making sure that his voice sounded normal enough not to arouse any suspicion on the part of his patient. Ryan trusted him, but there were limits to such things.

"Whatever you say, doc."

Looking back one last time and wanting to somehow ask for Ryan’s forgiveness for what he was about to do and knowing that he couldn’t, Dr. Ethan Nathaniel walked out of his examination room to find a phone and call Chronos—and find a fast-acting sedative.

Ryan, sitting alone in the examination room with his shirt still off, was of course completely unaware of the nature of his doctor’s absence. He was just beginning to get bored when Dr. Nathaniel came walking back into the office, carrying a syringe filled with some kind of fluid.

"Are you sure I need a shot, doc? I mean, it’s probably just going to clear up if I put some lotion on it."

"Ryan, you’re just going to have to trust me, okay?"

"You’re the doc, doc," Ryan smirked. "Still, are you sure about this?"

Dr. Nathaniel didn’t answer; instead he stuck the point of the syringe into the vein that ran through Ryan’s right wrist. Hitting the plunger, Dr. Nathaniel watched as the powerful sedative drug was released into Ryan’s bloodstream. Ryan’s eyes started to flutter as the drug took effect, and Dr. Nathaniel caught the red-haired boy just before he would have fallen back onto the medical table. Instead, he slowly, gently lowered Ryan down to rest on the table—it was the only thing he could do for the boy, after all.

Once he was sure that Ryan was fully under the effects of the sedative, Dr. Nathaniel opened the door and strode out into the hall.

"He’s all ready for you," the doctor told the two Chronos operatives that had been waiting outside for just that kind of news.

"Good. We’ll take it from here. Thanks for calling this one in, doctor." The men both nodded respectfully to him before they filed into the room he had just left.

The two men came out just a few minutes later, carrying the limp body of Ryan Crouger. Thinking for a moment, Dr. Nathaniel decided to follow them. The two Chronos operatives didn’t seem to think much of his decision at first, simply taking it for granted that he would soon be leaving them to go tend to his other duties. When Dr. Nathaniel continued to shadow them beyond what they considered to be a reasonable distance, they turned to confront him.

"Don’t you have somewhere else to be, doctor?" the leader asked.

"The welfare of my patient is my highest concern, and that boy is currently still my patient," Dr. Nathaniel answered, hoping that was convincing enough.

Apparently it was, since the two Chronos personnel turned away without saying another word; it was good to know that he could still tell lies that were convincing enough to fool Zoanoids when he needed to do so. Following the two of them out into a deserted corridor, Dr. Nathaniel watched as, without a word or a look at each other, they entered another empty hospital room, set Ryan down on the examination table, and began looking over him.

He would have to find something to say to the boy’s father—some way to convince him not to worry over the safety of his son. That would be a challenge, especially when it inevitably came time to try to convince Ryan’s mother that he was safe and that she shouldn’t worry about him. Convincing Norma Crouger not to worry about her son was about as easy as holding the Pacific Ocean in a burlap bag.

There was also the matter of her infamous temper, something that Ryan had obviously inherited from her. It was easier for Dr. Nathaniel to deal with hot-tempered people, since he could just wait for them to calm down before he talked to them, but Ryan and Norma Crouger were two of the calmest people that Dr. Nathaniel had ever met—even in spite of Ryan’s sarcastic wit—until someone somehow managed to get them really angry, and then you were in serious trouble.

Norma’s pale greenish eyes could turn as icy as a frozen lake when she was angry enough, and Ryan’s had that same tendency. It would not be pleasant to try and face the woman in that state, but maybe if he met with and convinced Norman first, Norman would be able to convince his wife and hence spare Nathaniel the trouble.

He saw that the two Zoanoids were now loading Ryan onto a gurney, so he stepped out of their way and let them do their job. That was in fact just what he was doing now: his job. It was his duty to report anything of importance to his employers at Chronos, from humans that were ideal candidates to be processed into Zoanoids and Hyper Zoanoids, to a Guyver who had just appeared in his examination room, even if that Guyver’s host also happened to be the son of his oldest and best friend. His first loyalty was to Chronos; that was just the way things had to be.