As the last of Elegen’s former body became his, Aptom smirked at the remaining members of Team Five, all of whom were looking at him with varying degrees of horror. Zektor was the first to regain use of his voice.

"How dare you murder Elegen! I’ll rip you apart with my bare hands!"

"Oh, he’s not dead, he’s just… me, Mr. Zektor," Aptom mocked. "As for the bare hands part," Aptom licked his lips. "I would love to see you try."

The remainder of Team Five transformed, almost before Aptom had finished speaking. Gaster and Darzerb went right, while Zancrus and Zektor ran to Aptom’s left. It was a fairly well reasoned strategy, what with having a good balance of speed and raw physical power on both teams, but Aptom wasn’t going to lose to Team Five. He had taken far more than his share of shit from all of the Hyper Zoanoids, but since Team Five were the ones standing in front of him, they were the ones who had to reap the whirlwind first.

Rolling out of the way of a missile barrage from Gaster, Aptom launched himself into a backwards cartwheel to evade a shot from Zektor’s forearm-lasers. Zancrus, who was apparently just getting himself ready for a charge, was completely unprepared when Aptom charged at him. Grabbing hold of the left pair of antennae that stuck out of the sides of Zancrus’ head, Aptom pulled the Hyper Zoanoid over to him.

Wrapping his arm around Zancrus’ neck, Aptom started to absorb the Hyper Zoanoid. Zancrus would be as useful as Elegen, and Aptom was still hungry. Those were good enough reasons to have a meal as far as Aptom was concerned. When the remaining three had finally noticed Zancrus screaming, it was just a little too late for them to do anything about it. As Zancrus was forced to join Elegen as a part of Aptom’s composite body, Aptom had to jump out of the way of yet another one of Gaster’s missile barrages.

"I won’t let you take Zancrus the way you took Elegen!" Gaster shouted, enraged. "I’ll kill you first!"

Laughing, Aptom slapped Gaster in the face with Elegen’s tentacles. Then, adding injury to insult, Aptom unleashed 3,100 volts directly into Gaster’s face. Gaster’s screams were like music to Aptom, and with Zancrus’ own cries now fading away as he became a part of Aptom’s body, they were also the only thing that currently amused him. The last of Zancrus’ body being fully absorbed by this time, Aptom bio-morphed his hands from Elegen’s purple, human-standard hands into Zancrus’ deadly Vibration Blades.

Laughing madly, Aptom charged back into the thick of the fight. Aptom was getting bored now, so he knew that he would have to make these last shots count. Kicking a charging Darzerb in the face, Aptom ran through another one of Gaster’s missile barrages, using Zancrus’ superior speed so that he came through without a scratch. Turning to look back at the trees, Aptom finally decided to leave the remains of Team Five to do… whatever they would do once he left.

"So sorry to eat and run!" Aptom taunted, running at Gaster and using the Hyper Zoanoid’s face as a springboard to launch himself over behind Team Five. "But I have so many more entertaining things to do today. Bye now!"

And, laughing triumphantly, Aptom sprinted off into the trees.

Zektor was enraged. No, scratch that, he was so far beyond ‘enraged’ that he was fairly sure that he was in all new territories of anger by now. Not only had Aptom devoured both Elegen and Zancrus alive, taking so much obvious pleasure in the act that it made Zektor’s blood boil, but he had then had the nerve to use their powers to attack the rest of his friends. Not only that, but the friendship that he and Elegen had shared had been… special.

It was for all those reasons that Zektor was going to hunt down Aptom, kill the rogue Lost Unit in the bloodiest, most painful way possible, and drag his corpse back to Mt. Minakami. Sure, Dr. Balkus might have somehow implied to Zektor and the others that he wanted Aptom alive, but two of his friends might as well be dead by now, and Zektor was sure that Dr. Balkus could learn as much from dissecting Aptom’s inert corpse as he could from interrogating the former Hyper Zoanoid personally. And in a much safer way, as well.

It was with all these thoughts in mind that Zektor ordered the remainder of Team Five to follow Aptom. Blasting or smashing their way through the trees that stood in front of them, so that Aptom wouldn’t be able to use their high branches to get the drop on Team Five again, Zektor, Gaster and Darzerb carved a path through the forest. To find Aptom, and to kill him.

XxXxX

They had gotten separated somehow, Sho couldn’t very clearly remember how after being pummeled upside the head by Gyou for what had felt like a couple of days, but the end result was the same. He and Mizuki were now running for their lives through the mazelike streets of Takeshiro. Or at least Sho was running for his life, since he had pulled Mizuki onto his back because as the Guyver he was faster than any living human.

He couldn’t run at his full speed, of course, since the friction from the wind would more than likely injure Mizuki at the Guyver’s top speed. But he could run a lot faster than either he or Mizuki was capable of normally. Sho couldn’t help the thought that Chronos had actually built Takeshiro, since the layout of the town was confusing enough to be a deliberate attempt by them to hold him and Mizuki captive. That was probably just Sho’s imagination running away with him again, though.

As he ran through the street, Sho had had to frequently jump over cars that suddenly came racing at him, either accidentally or deliberately as their drivers were turned into Zoanoids by the psychic waves emanating from Mt. Minakami. Sho, as much as he hated even the thought of it, knew what he would have to do if even one of those Zoanoids caught up to him. But there was no time for a running battle, and even if there was, Sho would never have risked injuring Mizuki.

So he kept running, hoping that he would find a way out of Chronos’ trap. Sho was starting to get a little tired now, something that even the Guyver couldn’t help him with, and he just hoped that he would have the stamina to stay awake long enough to get Mizuki to safety. Leaving her at the nonexistent mercy of the Guyver’s hyper-defensive mode wasn’t something Sho would ever let himself consider for very long.

Even the thought of it made him feel sick inside.

Running and jumping over yet another speeding car, Sho looked out ahead to see if he was actually coming to the end of the city. But no, all that he could see in front of him were more buildings, hemming him in and making him easy prey for some of the faster Zoanoids. Ducking into an alley that was just wide enough to accommodate the Guyver’s somewhat bulky armor but too narrow for any of the Zoanoids, with the possible exception of the Hyper Zoanoid Zancrus, Sho kept running.

He was still hoping to find a way out of Takeshiro, but that hope was starting to become a faint one by now. Not wanting to take the risk of flying with Mizuki still on his back, Sho pushed himself to run a bit faster. There were Enzyme II Zoanoids after him, and if even one of them caught up to him… Sho didn’t even want to think about what would happen. He couldn’t even really be grateful that Gyou wasn’t chasing after him anymore, because that only meant that Tetsuro, Mr. Murakami, and the others were all still in danger.

More danger than he was in right now, of course, since Gyou was a Zoalord. Gasping for air, Sho kept running. Mizuki was a barely perceptible weight on his back, light as a feather. And once again Sho had to be grateful for the Guyver’s strength. Out of the alleyway now, Sho looked around quickly, to make sure that there were no Zoanoids waiting to ambush him now that he was without the mild protection of the narrow space between the walls.

There weren’t any Zoanoids, luckily for the two of them, and Sho saw something that made him feel even better: the end of the valley. There were only about two kilometers between him and the end of the Zoanoid-overrun city. Running like the hounds of hell were after him, which was a very apt metaphor in this case, Sho put all that he had into making it those last two kilometers. But then, Sho started to hesitate.

What about Mr. Murakami and the others? Sho demanded of himself. What about Tetsuro? I can’t just leave them behind to fight Gyou, can I? They might be in danger. As Sho started to wonder if what he was doing was right, his running speed started to drop slowly. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem except for the fact that it would give the Zoanoids pursuing him a chance to catch up. And that was just what they were doing.