The scans had finally located the Relic cocoon—at least, that was what Lord Hamilcal had told him when he had been deployed to this nondescript neighborhood in the Colorado Springs area. As Imakarum, leading a group of six Standard Zoanoids, approached the location that they’d been given, the Twelfth Zoalord wondered again just how and why the Relic cocoon had appeared inside a suburban home.

That was what he and his group were currently approaching: a fairly large and well-kept suburban dwelling. He could already sense that there were no humans in the front room, which was where Lord Hamilcal had detected the two energy surges from the Relic cocoon. What the purpose of those surges was, exactly, aside from being concurrent with the cocoon’s disappearance from the Dead Sea Plant, was what Imakarum and his Zoanoids had been dispatched to ascertain.

Reaching the door, Imakarum settled his hand against the doorknob and pushed, shattering the latch. Walking into the house, the Twelfth Zoalord was confronted by two separate and distinctly annoying things: the first was the fact that the Relic cocoon was nowhere to be found; the second was the dog barking loudly at him. The animal was fairly large, vaguely wolflike in appearance, and making a rather large nuisance of itself. Therefore, he felt no remorse for using his telekinesis to slam it against the wall of the main room until it fell silent, though if he had known just how that action would affect his chances of recapturing the Fifth Guyver, he might have reconsidered.

XxXxX

It was Raider’s barking that woke him up first; the Husky sounded like he was being menaced by an entire army of strangers. Probably another damn squirrel had gotten in though the basement. Those things were a menace. Ryan was just about to flop back into bed and try to fall asleep again when he heard five loud thumps. Then Raider fell silent. Ryan woke up instantly, like someone had jammed a cattle prod into his back.

Turning to Sho, Ryan shook the other boy awake a bit more forcefully than he would have if he hadn’t been so worried about his dog.

Ryan watched as Sho turned toward the door, and then the other boy tensed up suddenly. Wondering what was going on, Ryan was a bit more surprised by what Sho said next.

Sho was practically in hysterics by now, but in a calm kind of way that didn’t involve yelling and running around. Sho’s brand of hysterics was more the kind of twitchy, paranoid, I’m-just-about-to-crack kind of thing that Ryan had seen in his dad a few times.

+All right, come on. Follow me.+

Pulling Sho over to the shelves that Dad had installed in his closet, Ryan started up. Heading for the trapdoor in the ceiling—the one that his dad never seemed to get around to nailing shut like he said he would—Ryan climbed quickly.

+What are you doing, Ryan?+

+You’re the one who said we needed to get out of here fast,+ Ryan pointed out reasonably. +This is the fastest way you’re going to find.+

Sho looked at him weirdly as Ryan scaled the shelves.

As the two of them scaled the mostly unused shelves, Ryan brushed the ceiling with his fingertips, prepping himself to shove open the trapdoor when the time came. After six more steps on his part, that time had finally come. Shoving the trapdoor up and out of his way, Ryan caught the edge before it could slam into the attic floor. If what Sho was saying was true, and the guy did honestly look freaked-out enough that Ryan was willing to believe him, then any loud sounds would give them away.

Climbing up all the way into the attic, Ryan turned around and helped Sho to climb up the rest of the way. Once Sho was inside, Ryan gently closed the trapdoor and led Sho across the room to another trapdoor. This one, however, came fully equipped with a flight of stairs – or a rudimentary ladder, depending on how one looked at things – built in. Ryan carefully unlatched the second trapdoor and let it down slowly.

+Oh; I hadn’t thought of that.+ Sho still seemed a bit worried, though. +Are you sure we’re going to be able to make it our of here without any of the Zoanoids hearing us, though?+

+You sensed them when they were near my room, and the kitchen’s practically on the other side of the house. We’ll be fine.+

That seemed to calm Sho down a bit, though Ryan wasn’t sure if what he had just said was true or not. The last thing he wanted to deal with was Sho freaking out on him, though, so Ryan didn’t say anything else. Now at the bottom of the ladder, Ryan checked the hallway in front and behind to make sure it was clear of those Zoa-things Sho seemed so eager to avoid. It wasn’t as if he knew exactly what to look for, so Ryan was just making sure that the way to the kitchen was empty.

As far as he could see, and, to a certain extent, hear, it was, so he and Sho made their way to the kitchen with Ryan in the lead since he was the one who knew where they were going. Once they had made it to the kitchen, Ryan stole a glance inside before he led Sho to the door at the front of the large room.

+Well, let’s be grateful for small favors, then,+ Ryan said, grinning. +And let’s also get the hell out of here before any of them gets the bright idea to come in here after us.+

Taking Sho’s silence for the agreement that it was, Ryan led the other boy across the kitchen floor to the door that would let them into the attached garage. Ryan was just glad that neither of his parents were in the house at the moment, ‘cause he’d never have been able to explain this. Walking quietly when they were barefoot on the linoleum floor wasn’t all too difficult for Ryan since he’d done it a few times before, but wordlessly teaching Sho that same skill more than made up for the relative lack of difficulty there.

Finally reaching the door into the garage, Ryan opened it as quietly as he could, let Sho inside, and then closed it just as quietly behind them.