"Well, since these people seem to know you pretty well, I guess I’ll just-"

"Hey! I’ve seen you before!" a girl’s voice, one that neither Howard nor Toshiaki recognized, called out. "You’re that man who’s always been hanging around outside the house. Did you finally decide to come in and meet us?" she smiled, somehow looking cute and smug at the same time.

"Mr. Hayami?"

"Hi, Tetsuro, Mizuki."

The short-haired girl—and Howard was just starting to wonder if he should ask her what her name was—started over to them. At first it looked like she was going to start chatting with them, but instead she walked right past them, closed the door, and locked it up tight. Which, when Howard thought about it, seemed like a really good idea. She also locked up a second latch that Howard hadn’t noticed before.

"I can’t believe I forgot this; I never forget things like this!"

"I guess there’s a first time for everything, Natsuki," Tetsuro said, smiling kindly.

"I think it was a good thing that you forgot to lock that other lock," Mizuki said, smiling at Howard and Toshiaki. "We would have never found out about what happened to our friends if you had."

"I think you’re onto something there, Mizuki," Natsuki said, laughing happily.

"Mr. Jackson? Mr. Hayami? What happened in Relics Point after we left? And how did all of you manage to get out?" Mizuki asked.

"What I really want to know is, where are the other scientists? They did come out of Relics Point with you, didn’t they? Where are you all staying?" Tetsuro asked.

"We’ve been staying at Prof. Odagiri’s mansion," Toshiaki said. "And yeah, most of the scientists who you met escaped. But…" Toshiaki trailed off, biting his lower lip.

Howard looked away, too, not wanting to be the one to tell their friends about what had happened to the rest of the people that they had known from Relics Point. In the end, he decided to change the subject.

"Hey, I almost forgot to ask; what happened to Sho? And Prof. Odagiri? And where’s Agito? I thought they’d be with you guys."

Mizuki sniffled; Tetsuro turned away; and Shizu smiled with such determined brightness that Howard and Toshiaki both knew she was in deep denial. Hell, even Aptom could tell, and the shapeshifter wasn’t exactly what one would call emotionally sensitive.

"I’m quite sure that Sho and Master Agito are both fine," Shizu said, turning toward the three guests and still smiling determinedly, hence not seeing the looks of sympathy and pity directed at her. "What I’m more interested in is what happened to all our friends from Relics Point. Why don’t I go make some tea, and then you can tell us all about it?"

With that said, Shizu turned and hurried away, presumably into the apartment’s kitchen. Coming close to the rest of the people that he’d inadvertently come to visit, because he didn’t want Shizu to hear them talking about her while she wasn’t there, Howard looked at the others.

"What’s wrong with her?"

"We were all inside the Relic when it was destroyed," Tetsuro said. "Sho was piloting—at least he was, until he and Agito both left to deal with Gyou. He’d gotten out in front of the Relic and was fighting Mr. Murakami-"

"He wasn’t fighting Mr. Murakami, he was killing him!" Mizuki shrilly cut in, tears in her eyes.

Tetsuro nodded sadly. "You’re right, Mizuki. Anyway, after Gyou had… after he’d killed Mr. Murakami, Sho and Agito went outside in front of the Relic to fight him. That was when the other Zoalords appeared. Most of them were stronger than Gyou—much stronger. Though Gyou was almost half dead by then, both from what Mr. Murakami had done to him as well as probably from fighting that other Zoalord…" Tetsuro paused for breath, and both Howard and Toshiaki wondered just what was coming next. "That new Zoalord, this glowing, golden one, somehow reflected both Mega-Smasher blasts back at us; the Relic was destroyed by those."

"We haven’t seen Master Agito or Sho since that day, but I’m sure they’re fine," Shizu said as she came back into the main room. "Master Agito is probably planning something even as we speak. Sir?" she called over her shoulder to Aptom. "Would you like to stay and have some tea?"

Howard turned, noticing that Aptom had been heading for the door. The other Lost Unit stopped, turning around to look at all the people gathered in the main room of the apartment he’d just entered.

"Sure," Aptom said, smiling. "I’d love to have some tea."

He was smiling without his usual Hannibal Lector-ish I’m-going-to-eat-your-face expression, which almost surprised Howard until he remembered that there were other people in the room, too. Aptom probably didn’t want to freak them out the way he’d tried to do with him. That thought worried Howard a bit, since Aptom was or had been acting, but Howard still wasn’t sure which had been the act and which was the real Aptom.

Turning to look back at Howard, Aptom smirked at him. Settling down next to Aptom at the table that Shizu had just finished setting up, Howard leaned over so that he could whisper in Aptom’s ear.

"What’s your game, Aptom? What are you doing?"

"I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about," Aptom said with an obviously faked sincere look. "Drink your tea."

"I want to know what you’re doing here," Howard insisted. "You said you had issues with Sho, and now we’ve learned that Sho and Agito are probably dead. So what are you still doing here?"

"You really think you want to know?" Aptom asked, raising his teacup to take a sip.

"I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t," Howard shot back.

"You haven’t known that little bastard nearly as long as I have; I know how damn hard he is to kill. If he’s not here, then he’s probably biding his time before he does something stupid like piss me off again. Besides, it’s been too long since I’ve had a good cup of tea." Aptom lifted his cup and took another sip.

Howard couldn’t really think of anything to say to that, so he fell silent and drank his own tea. One thing was for certain, though: he was going to have to have a talk with Hayami about what Aptom had said, just as soon as he could get away from the Lost Unit in question. Aptom didn’t really seem like the type who’d appreciate being talked about.

XxXxX

Sean, full from a late dinner and dozing in his bed, was wondering whether Cori would come in to kiss him goodnight before or after he fell asleep. He was hoping that she’d come when he was at least awake enough to appreciate the kiss, but as he slipped further and further from lucidity, Sean thought that that would be highly unlikely. Still, it would have been nice…

XxXxX

Just as Sean was about to fall asleep entirely, the door to his room swung open and Cori walked in. Bending over the half-asleep form of the man that she loved, she gently kissed first his right cheek and then his forehead. Sean was such a good man, even more so since he hadn’t tried to keep her from participating in this battle against Chronos once he’d seen how much it meant to her. Cori had felt that she needed to do this, and she still did, to give her father’s sacrifice at least some meaning.

He’d given his life to make sure that she was able to live, that was true, but if it hadn’t been for Chronos, he’d never have been forced to make that choice in the first place. They were evil—they’d ruined the lives of countless people. Whatever Chronos was trying to do, they weren’t going to succeed; she, Sean, and the ACTF were going to stop them before they could hurt anyone else.

The blaring of the attack alarms, as loud and sudden as they were, caused Sean to bolt upright in bed. Cori quickly got out of the way of the door, knowing that Sean would either rush right through it or one of the ACTF soldiers would come in to get him, neither of which would have been possible with her standing in the threshold the way she was. She watched as Sean dashed out of the room, then turned and headed for the Tech Division.

They were going to need her help analyzing those new Zoanoids that Chronos had been sending after them lately.

XxXxX

Sean, as he slowly woke from his semi-conscious daze, found himself running with a large group of ACTF soldiers. Or, more precisely, being dragged along as the soldiers made their way to the base armory. Sean knew the way there almost by heart after working with the ACTF for so long.

"Barker? You up yet?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Yeah; yeah, I’m alright."

"You think you’ll be good for this one?" Hallie Carson, one of the many soldiers in the Hunter Division, asked as she ran along beside him.

Sean noticed then that Hallie and the other soldier, whose name he hadn’t learned yet, were marching him in along with the other soldiers.

"I think you should transform already if you’ve got your bearings back," Larry Henderson said, signaling for the other ACTF soldiers to leave the area so Sean wouldn’t injure any of them.

Once all of them were out of the blast and Sean had gotten far enough away from the equipment that he wouldn’t damage any of it, he called for his Guyver unit. Once he was fully encased inside the alien bio-armor, he turned and ran out of the armory, following on the heels of the soldiers that had been walking with him. Once all of them had made it out of the compound, Sean looked around for their attackers.

Said attackers consisted of a large group of some kind of hulking, white-furred Zoanoids that looked like they had some insect parts mixed in just for kicks—whoever had designed these new Zoanoids for Chronos certainly had weird tastes. Sean was grateful to be wearing the Guyver— it had restored enough of his energy that he no longer felt that he was going to fall asleep on his feet, and he was facing Zoanoids of a currently unknown quantity.

They might have been just like all the other Zoanoids that Sean had ever faced during the time he’d been battling Chronos L.A., or they might have been the newer and nastier breeds he’d been facing since the ACTF had gotten fully up and running. The four long, crablike pinchers that Sean could see sticking out of their backs seemed to suggest that these guys were the tougher ones.


 
 
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