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.