"I'm fine, Sean, I was just thinking. When do you think that doc's going to get here, anyway?" he asked, before Sean could think to ask him what he'd been thinking about.
"Dr. Greymalkin? He should be here—" The door opened again, this time to admit a tall, middle-aged man with close-cropped brown hair, who Ryan privately thought bore a startling resemblance to Mr. Fantastic. "Right about now, I guess."
"Dr. Greymalkin, I presume," Ryan said.
"A fan of the classics, I see," the doctor said, grinning slightly.
"No, that's just what people say when they see guys like you," he said, offering up his own grin in return. "Well, either that or 'the doctor is in'. But I didn't want to be that cliché."
"I see," the doctor said as Sean guffawed in the background.
"Oh, just to let you know, if I see any rubber gloves being pulled out, I am so going to scream and run."
"Have you been telling him horror stories about me, Sean?" Dr. Greymalkin asked, turning an exasperated look on the older Guyver standing by the door.
"No, just the truth. You really worked me over the last time you had me in your clutches; even you have to admit that."
"Well, at the time it was necessary," the doctor said, and Ryan thought for a minute that he should have had a pair of schoolmarm-ish glasses to adjust. He just had that tone. "We didn't know what kind of effects the Guyver had on your physical structure, aside from the enhancements. And none of us knew how it or if it had affected you even when you were no longer wearing it. Now that we have a baseline measurement, there shouldn't be any need for further investigation."
"Oh, so I got the full-body work over so he didn't have to?" Sean asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning slightly.
"That's about what it amounts to," the doctor said. "Now, why don't you go on and eat something, or run a combat drill, or whatever it is you do when you're not annoying me?"
"Good luck with him, Ryan," Sean said, winking before he turned and made for the door. "I'll meet you in the cafeteria when you're done with Dr. Frankenstein there."
Laughing as his fellow Guyver made his way out of the room, Ryan turned his attention back to the doctor. "So, what's with your name, anyway? You sound like someone's British cat."
"Well," the doctor said, chuckling softly, "that's not the first time someone's questioned me about my name, but it is the first time anyone's brought cats or the British into it. As for the name itself, I could ask you the same question." He laughed outright. "You sound like you belong somewhere on Elm Street."
The pillow that Ryan threw hit him right between the eyes, and he chuckled at the stunned-bunny expression on the doctor's face. Right until said doctor thwacked him over the head with that selfsame pillow.
"All right, enough horseplay," Dr. Greymalkin said, still smiling slightly as he set the pillow back on the medical bed. "You're looking like you want to start fidgeting, and I'm sure we both want to get some food in us before the next shift ends, so let's get this done. Open your mouth, stick out your tongue, and we'll get started."
XxXxX
Walking back to his room with a definite air of self-satisfaction, Sean was stopped by no less than five different ACTF soldiers when he explained there was a new Guyver on their side and ready to fight Chronos with them. They smiled and shook his hand, congratulating him for finding a new ally or just thanking him for continuing to help look out for them. It was a new experience for Sean. Most of the time—more than usual now with Chronos' new batch of Zoanoids on the loose—he'd been the one thanking them for looking out for him. It wasn't that he was ungrateful for all they'd done for him – and Cori, especially – he just liked to be praised for a job well done. It felt good.
Once he was back in his room, though, he decided to take another crack at that Guyver-to-Guyver telepathy Ryan had taught him about.
+Hey, Ryan?+
+What's up, Sean?+
+Nothing in particular. I just wanted to test out that telepathy thing you were telling me about. Looks like it worked.+
+Sounds like it, too.+ Ryan's chuckle came clearly across the link, and Sean had to laugh at himself.
+Yeah, I guess that one was kind of obvious.+
+So, what did you have in mind for us to talk about, if anything?+
+I didn't really have anything in mind,+ Sean admitted, leaning back against the pillows he'd had propped against the wall since last night. He hadn't been getting much sleep lately, what with the attacks and all.
+Atkins said Chronos was worldwide… tell me more about the others. Or the bases in Japan.+ he said, trailing off as he paused to think.
If what Ryan was saying was true, and there was no reason for him to doubt a fellow Guyver, that meant both good things and bad things. The good was that he and Ryan weren't the only Guyvers in existence; the bad was that Chronos was even more powerful and had infiltrated more parts of the world than any of them had known. Still, since Ryan had been fighting them in that part of the world, he would obviously have more firsthand knowledge of what Japan's Chronos was capable of.
+Ryan, have you ever heard of a Zoanoid called Enzyme II?+ he asked, remembering their conversation from earlier and wanting to make sure that what he had concluded was true. It was never good to make assumptions; doubly so in their line of work.
+You've had some encounters with them, I take it?+
+Yeah. You have, too?+
+One of them took a bite out of my arm; damn near tore the whole thing off,+ Ryan's distaste was obvious; Sean could more than sympathize. +That was the first time. How many have you had to deal with so far?+
+I don't think it was more than ten,+ he said, working a bit to recall. +I'm sure I would have remembered if there had been that many. Do yours spit acid, too?+
+I hate it when they do that,+ Ryan said, answering the question indirectly. +One of my least favorite things about those bugly freaks. The other one's got to be those giant pincers they have sticking out of their backs. Remember those? On the leg-things?+
+Yes.+ He blew out his breath in a long hiss, falling back onto his bed with a soft thump. +Those things make me crazy. With the acid and the pincers you can't even get close enough to fight them, not to mention the fact that if you do manage, by some miracle or other to get close enough to stab, your blades dissolve in their blood.+
Sean knew he'd sounded particularly bitter about that, but Ryan was a Guyver, so he'd be able to understand.
+Well, at least you can still blow their heads off from long-range; that kills them as dead as anything.+
+Yeah.+ Sean chuckled out loud. +It might be possible to blow their heads off with that dinky little laser, but it'd take a long time.+
+Yeah, but who says I was talking about the Head Beam, Sean?+
+Is that what that thing's called?+ he asked, never having any reason to think that the Guyver's weapons had ever had or needed names. +Anyway, I don't think I'd want to try using that cannon-thing the Guyver's got hidden under its chest plates to take out just one Enzyme. Too much chance of hitting someone else by mistake, not to mention the thing takes so much time to charge.+
+I wouldn't want to waste Mega-Smasher shot on a single Enzyme II, either. It's useful to have when they swarm ya, but you're right about it being overkill for just one.+
Putting aside Ryan's oddly evasive answers, Sean turned his focus back to Ryan's situation. +So, how's the examination been going?+
+It's good. I haven't been probed, if that's what you mean; no rubber gloves, either.+
+I was wondering why there hadn't been any screaming or large explosions yet,+ he said, chuckling. +Has he done the tongue thing yet?+
+Yeah. And the ear thing, too.+
+Well, I think that means you're just about done,+ he said, nodding with satisfaction. +I'll come get you once Dr. Frankenstein finishes with you. Then how 'bout I take you down to the cafeteria and we have a bite to eat?+
+That would be nice.+
+I thought you'd like it,+ he said, sliding down to lay more comfortably on his bed. +Ryan?+
+Yeah?+
+It's nice to have you here.+
