They had finally managed to reach the huge space that Ryan had been picking up on his hyper-sensors for whoever knew how many days. And now Aptom and the minions were carefully scraping and digging around a large section of the concrete wall that stood in front of them. He'd been the one to suggest that he be the one to get them all in, since it was really best to have a single smooth slice to get them into the building, rather than having the wall shredded into ragged pieces by dozens of acid-covered talons. And, considering the fact that he hadn't been doing anything at the time – not that he ever was these days – he'd elected to get that done himself.
It looked like the minions were pretty much done, so it was about time for him to get ready to move. After all the time he'd spent clinging to Aptom's back, his only use that of a humanoid RADAR and early-warning system, moving again was going to be a fairly novel experience. He was even starting to look forward to it, as weird as that would have sounded to him before this whole exercise in frustration that was working down in these tunnels.
Once the minions had made the hole as wide as the tunnels itself, he slid down off of Aptom's back and stood in front of the hole. Not wasting any time with overdramatic knuckle-cracking – he wanted his shower, damn it! – Ryan hovered up to the top of the tunnel, extended his right wrist-blade, jammed the thing in almost all the way, and began slicing downward. As he landed, and then crouched to get to the parts down near the floor, he hoped that anyone down here in this part of the basement would have the sense to get out of the way before this section of wall started coming down.
Skipping over the section of floor that he'd have had to lay completely prone to get to, Ryan stood back up as he continued slicing. His Vibration Blades cut through the concrete in front of him like warm butter, a comparison that only served to remind Ryan of all the time he'd been without food. He may not have known how long it was in any kind of standard time units, but that only made it feel like more of an eternity.
Once he'd finished slicing, Ryan rejoined the minions back on the ground and they all proceeded to shove the section of wall out of place. It fell with a solid "thump", but there were no screams and no splattering sounds, so it was a pretty safe bet that no one had been behind that section of wall when it'd been shoved over. So that was good.
He took point as he, Aptom, and the minions made their way into the basement. He and Aptom would have been about evenly matched if both of them had been at full strength, but the fact was that Aptom had been working the minions pretty much non-stop to get them all to this point. A few of the minions had even started eating each other so that they would have the stamina to keep moving and the cells to feed into their acid sacs. Either that or they'd just been bored; he was just making guesses, since Aptom never bothered to share what was in that messed-up head of his.
)Kinda creepy down here, ain't it kid?(
)You can say that again,( he sent, and then mentally rolled his eyes.
)You know, you walked right into that one, don't you kid?( Elegen sent back, with the mental suggestion of a chuckle.
)I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.(
Ignoring his 'inner Zoanoid' as the serpent-headed one laughed his nonexistent ass off, Ryan continued on his way into the darkened basement. The place was fairly creepy, but of course that creepiness was less a function of the almost-unnoticeable darkness than of the fact that – conquered or not – this place was still one of Chronos' bases. All of the neatly-stacked crates, large and small, added to the general feeling of disuse about the place.
Of course, to anyone else that would have probably made things all the more unsettling.
At least to anyone who wasn't him; as far as he was concerned, no Chronos could ever be too deserted. Still, it would have been nice to see someone who wasn't Aptom or one of the minions for once. Then, as if someone had been listening in on his thoughts – someone who wasn't ol' Snake-head – one of the many scientists who had thrown in their lot with the ACTF came down the stairs with a distinct air of caution around him.
"Hey, Shcroder! How've you been doing lately?" he called, waving as the blond man came fully into the room where they were all gathered.
"Ryan?" he paused, obviously surprised about something. "I honestly wasn't expecting to see you here."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he chuckled. "Atkins told you to expect us, right?"
"You were meant to stop digging when you reached Monument Circle, Indianapolis, not here on the edge of Illinois."
Fuck. "Well then, I guess we can just consider this a rest stop, then. Right?"
"I suppose we could allow you two to stay for a few days, at least," Shcroder said. "Why don't you two come up a level, and I'll have a bed set up for you?"
"Can I at least get a shower first? I don't know how long I've been stuck down in those tunnels wearing this armor, but I do know that I want a shower before I even think of doing anything else."
"I think I can arrange that," Shcroder said, with a nod and a smile. "Come with me. I'll also see what I can do about getting you some food. You've got to be hungry after all this time."
He was vaguely curious about just how long "all this time" actually was, but he was really more interested in getting a shower in, getting some food, and getting some actual sleep. Probably in that order, but the food situation wasn't all that urgent on his end. He was just craving the taste of something besides Guyver-parts, which tasted suspiciously like nothing.
"Ryan, don't you think you'd be more comfortable if you took that armor of yours off?"
"Honestly? No," he paused, leaning against the railing as he looked up the seemingly-endless flights of stairs ahead of them. "I'm pretty sure that the Guyver's the only thing keeping me awake."
"Shouldn't you just take the armor off and try to get some sleep, then?"
"Not on your life, pal," he said, his growl only partially playful. "I'm going to have that shower I've been looking forward to, even if I do end up falling asleep in one of the stalls."
A decidedly amused chuckle sounded from behind him. "You're not going to convince the kid that easily, Doc. I couldn't even talk him out of that, and we've gotten real close over the time we've worked together. No offense, but you don't have a chance in hell."
"Hey, Maniac," he greeted, chuckling a bit, himself. "What have you and the minions been up to lately? Eating or making trouble?"
Aptom laughed. "Nah, I'm just getting reacquainted with myself."
Ryan would have rolled his eyes if he'd been capable of the action; it figured.