The tremors had started up again, only this time they seemed a lot worse. There were cracks spreading across the ceiling, and it was getting more obvious by the second that the broken pieces of same were going to start coming down in a very short time. Tossing aside the crutch that he’d fashioned for himself, Zektor quickly transformed again. Bracing himself against what he hoped was a sturdy section of the wall, Zektor hobbled over to retrieve it.

Just because he wasn’t going to be moving around for awhile didn’t mean that Zektor was going to lose something that he’d worked so hard to find. He’d still need it, Zektor knew, since there was no way in hell that he was going to try crawling to… wherever the hell it was that he was going now. As the ceiling inevitably started coming down, in big chunks no less, Zektor crouched and held his makeshift crutch close to his chest.

As the floor started to give way underneath him, Zektor started cursing a blue streak. Things just couldn’t seem to stop getting worse. First it was Aptom, then not being able to find Dr. Balkus, then Aptom again, then the shooting his own leg off, and now the building was falling down on his head. Well, at least things can’t get much worse… Shit, now that I’ve said that I’ve probably ended up jinxing myself, Zektor grumbled internally.

XxXxX

They were all gathered together now, at the peak of Mt. Minakami. All nine of the remaining Chronos Overlords.

"Do you sense that?" Rienzi asked, rhetorically since he already knew that his fellow Zoalords would have done so.

"Yes," De Galenos rumbled.

"It would seem that our former colleague has decided to do something rather drastic," Krumeggnik said, his voice rife with suppressed mirth.

"Former?"

"Why yes, dear Caerleon," Krumeggnik said, smiling. "You don’t think that our great leader would keep someone as obviously dangerous as the former Commander around, now do you?"

"Krumeggnik speaks the truth," Amniculus said, before Caerleon could think of anything else to say. "I highly doubt that Gyou will survive to the end of this day."

There was a unanimous agreement from the other eight Overlords on that point.

XxXxX

As he fell, his energy all but gone, Gyou smirked. At least he had seen that look of abject terror on Alkanphel’s face, just before the First Zoalord had been sucked into Gyou’s back hole. Even slamming headfirst into the floor couldn’t wipe the smugly satisfied look off of his face. Chuckling as he pulled himself back to his feet, Gyou saw something else. Something that made him even happier.

Gyou saw Guyver III. He had, of course, been somewhat disappointed that the Third Guyver had not managed to survive his Gravity Wave. He had thought that Makashima and that annoying Murakami would have at least been equal to the challenge. Fukamachi’s Guyver had really only been a consolation prize, since the boy himself was so weak. A prize in itself, yes. But still not the one that Gyou had wanted in the first place.

But now none of that mattered, since Guyver III stood in front of him now. And there, behind him and to his left, stood Murakami. They were both in battle-form, a fact that amused Gyou to no end. If those two little maggots thought that they had any chance of defeating him, Gyou would quickly disabuse them of it.

"So, I see that the two of you did manage to survive," Gyou said, smiling like a hungry shark. "Good. I was so looking forward to killing the two of you face-to-face. Especially you, Makashima. I have a surprise for you."

With that Gyou started concentrating, willing the Remover to come to him. He could almost feel it in his hands. The Remover’s weight, its heft, the subtly changing resonance as it activated. And then he didn’t need to recall the feel of the Remover in his hand anymore, because now it really was in his hand. The Remover fed off his remaining bio-energy as it powered up.

Gyou didn’t mind this so much, since he knew that he would shortly have access to all of the energy that he would ever possibly need.

"So that’s the Remover," Murakami said, sounding halfway interested.

"I should have known you’d know about the Remover, Murakami," Gyou said, his suspicion confirmed. "What with you having that idiot Yamamura to tell you everything."

"My old mentor was not an idiot," Murakami growled, and Gyou knew he had him.