"Professor," called one of the other scientists from his post at a monitoring station. "Commander Gyou is coming again."

"Is he headed for this room?" Prof. Odagiri asked, remarkably calmly Sho thought.

"No. It looks as if he’s heading for Dr. Shirai’s laboratory, as usual," the scientist said.

"Good," Prof. Odagiri said.

"Dr. Shirai? Who is he?" Sho asked.

"Dr. Shirai is the actual head scientist on this level," Tetsuro explained. "But he’s one of those obsessive types, thinks about nothing but his work."

"I couldn’t have put it better myself, Tetsuro," Prof. Odagiri said, nodding and smiling slightly. "I may run this level in Dr. Shirai’s absence, but he is still considered the head of this division."

"Oh," Sho said, turning to look at the video of Gyou walking past the purple hill and out of sight, seeming to be heading for another closed door.

XxXxX

As he made his way past the Relic spacecraft that had been concealed beneath Mt. Minakami since even before the base here had been built, Commander Gyou casually fingered the disk he’d concealed in his jacket pocket. Dr. Shirai’s personal laboratory was ideally suited for clandestine projects, such as the Unit Remover. And now, it would serve as the ideal place to conceal the new Zoalord body he was going to develop for Murakami’s son.

Because while Murakami and that annoying Makashima were dead now, Sho Fukamachi and all of those at Chronos who would oppose his plans were not. The Murakami boy would be useful when he finally made his move against Alkanphel and his supporters. And, while it was rather disappointing that he wouldn’t be able to take the Third Guyver for his own, the Fukamachi boy was still in possession of the First. Gyou knew Guyvers well enough to say with some degree of certainty that Fukamachi would find some way to survive against the Enzyme IIs that Gyou had sent after him.

Reaching the center of the room, Gyou stopped suddenly as he felt something pass through his head. Some feeling. If he had still been human, Gyou would have called it a headache. But he wasn’t human anymore, and there was some kind of strange resonance along with the spiking pain in his head. If he’d any in his lifetime to compare it to, Gyou might have been able to say that this – whatever it was – was like a migraine. The flashing lights and shooting pain were almost identical.

But Gyou had never had anything like that to compare this to, and so all he knew now was that he wanted it to stop. His breath was becoming short, and Gyou reached up and clamped his hands to his head. Alternately pulling at his hair and digging his nails into his scalp to try and take his mind off the pain, Gyou nearly fell to his knees as the pain intensified and he gasped for air.

Not having any kind of reflective surface nearby, or much presence of mind to focus on anything but the agony in his head, Gyou couldn’t know that his main, Control Zoacrystal was glowing brightly enough to be seen even through his human skin. Biting down on his lower lip hard enough to draw blood, Gyou tried to focus on breathing to the exclusion of all else. By now the pain was so great it was starting to make his vision blur, and for a moment Gyou thought he might pass out from the intensity of it. At this point Gyou would have welcomed the bliss of unconsciousness with open arms.

And then, miraculously, it all stopped. The pain knifing its way through his head abated to nothing, and the feeling of not being able to get enough air into his lungs went with it. Gyou breathed deeply, slowly regaining his bearings and his sense of self. Looking over at the dormant Relic, Gyou could just hear the end of a massive vibration winding down. What was that? Is it possible that the Relic and my Zoacrystal could have been in resonation with each other somehow?

Beyond that… no, it couldn’t be possible, Murakami and Makashima are both dead! Yes, that had to be true. No one and nothing could have survived his final Gravity Wave attack, least of all those rebels or the useless humans that had been traveling with Murakami and Makashima. So there was no reason for him to consider the ridiculous possibility that those annoying rebels had become the first to actually do so. Still, the strange resonance that had developed between his Zoacrystal and the Relic was slightly unsettling.

Gyou blew out a breath, his mien slightly annoyed. Annoyed that he had been diverted from his goal by something that was both intensely painful and would probably prove to be completely useless. He continued on his way to Dr. Shirai’s personal laboratory. Once he stood at the door, Gyou decided that he would also make an inquiry about the status of the Unit Remover. It wouldn’t do to have Dr. Shirai become suspicious about his motivations, after all.

The man may have been an irksome, aggravating, sniveling little cockroach, but for the moment he was still useful to Gyou’s overall plans. That thought caused a secretive smirk to work its way onto Gyou’s face. Perhaps, once he had fully fashioned the Murakami boy into a Zoalord loyal to him, Gyou would give him all the knowledge he needed to become a competent replacement for both Dr. Shirai and that annoying Balkus. Gyou chuckled. Yes, that idea definitely appeals to me. I think I will do that.

Now that he stood in front of the door to Dr. Shirai’s laboratory, Gyou keyed in his entrance code and walked inside. There were strange sounds coming from the glass case where Dr. Shirai had helped him to hide the Remover when he had dug it out of its resting place in the Relic and brought it the man in the first place. Shirai seemed to be very excited about something, pacing and muttering to himself as he always did when he had either found something extremely important, or even when he just thought that he had.

"I must report this to Commander Gyou at once!" Shirai said enthusiastically, rubbing his hands together with obvious glee.

When he turned around to leave his laboratory, he didn’t notice that Gyou was standing right in front of him. Shirai ended up walking right into him in what Gyou thought would have been a good scene for one of those idiotic sitcoms that he hated so much. Firmly reigning in his urge to smash Shirai’s skull, Gyou straightened his coat in an effort to distract himself while Shirai made an effort to gather his wits. Such as they were.

"What in blazes are you doing in my… Oh! Commander Gyou!" Shirai was obviously both flustered and surprised. "I was just going to go and get you."

Shirai was smiling, and for a moment Gyou wondered if his missing teeth were due to poor dental hygiene or if someone had finally gotten fed up with his inane blather and punched him in the mouth. It was an interesting thing to consider, and it also kept Gyou’s mind off of a few of the more painful things that he would have liked to do to the man.

"What did you intend to tell me, doctor?"

"Oh, yes," Shirai nodded sycophantically. "The Remover. It reacted to that strange, powerful vibration that was emitted from the Relic five minutes ago," here Shirai paused, looking at Gyou. "You did notice that vibration, didn’t you Commander?"

Idiot. Of course I noticed it, seeing as I was probably the one to cause it in the first place. "I noticed it," Gyou said neutrally.

"Well, the Remover was somehow activated when that massive vibration from the Relic ensued," Shirai said. "I was only going to ask you to come down here so you could test if this theory of mine will pan out."

"What do you need me to do?" Gyou asked.

"If you could just transform into your Zoalord form," Shirai rubbed his hands together, evidently expecting something. "We could find out if the Remover will respond to your bio-energy. I have found that it runs on bio-energy, but I am still not sure if it will respond to your own bio-energy, Commander. I mean to say that I am fairly sure that it will, but there are still other factors that I have not yet managed to determine-"

Shirai was rambling to himself, something that annoyed Gyou to no end, so Gyou tuned him out and focused on the one important thing that Shirai had said in his entire idiotic spiel. Removing his jacket, since he rather doubted that the disk that had in the pocket could withstand being exposed to the energies of subspace, Gyou draped it over one of the freestanding computer consoles that Shirai had set up in the room.

The laboratory itself was a haphazard scattering of freestanding computer consoles amid various bundles of wires and cables. There were any number of things to trip on, and the one time Balkus had visited he had taken one look at the mess and had never come back again. So in a way, Gyou was glad that for all the detritus on the floor, for all the myriad tripping hazards that were everywhere that one might try to put their feet. It meant that he had to be careful how he walked, true, but it also kept Balkus out of his hair.

Once Gyou was sure he was rid of everything that he did not want to expose to the unpredictable energies of subspace, Gyou focused his thoughts down to a single point. He felt his inner energies respond, and then Gyou started to feel the familiar and exhilarating sensation of his body growing larger and more powerful. His thirty-nine Zoacrystals emerged from their hiding places in his human flesh. Gyou could feel it when his transformation into his Zoalord form was complete, as the claws sprouted from the ends of his fingers to replace his useless fingernails.

"Now, what was it you wanted me to do?" Gyou asked, his voice now sounding like that of an apocalyptic doomsday machine instead of his usual low, husky tones.

"I want to see if the Remover will respond to your bio-energy, Commander Gyou," Shirai said.

Gyou was thankful that at least this time Shirai had the sense to shut up once he had said what he needed to. Walking over to the glass case that held the Unit Remover, Gyou carefully hit the release button with his clawed finger. The case opened without fuss, or even much sound, and soon Gyou noticed that the Remover was indeed reacting to something. Whether or not it would react the same way to Gyou’s own bio-energy was still to be discovered, though.

If it didn’t, Gyou would lean heavily on Shirai to discover an alternate means to control the Remover. And he would also step up the development of the Murakami boy’s Zoalord body. After all it was always better to have more than one trump card, especially when dealing with someone as powerful as Alkanphel was rumored to be. But all of that would be a consequence of his not being able to use the Remover for some reason. It was Gyou’s intention to be able to possess the Remover and use it for his own purposes.