DocDragon: Hi. For this chapter, I've got my favourite member of the old Hyper Zoanoid Team 5 to do the disclaimer. Thancrus, if you please.

Thancrus: Thank you. *ahem* DocDragon does not own Bio-Booster Armor: Guyver. He does own all the characters he created, and the zoanoids that appear in the Datafiles.

Chapter 3

Again, time passed. It had been nearly a month since that human had caused the test mission to end in horrible failure, but he hadn't shown up again. "At least the final tests of the prototype Daelott zoanoid were nearly finished," Mondo thought to himself as he went down to what he liked to call the "Proving ground" where new zoanoids had their abilities tested to see if they were worthy of mass-production. Right now Daelott was in there taking his final combat tests. Mondo entered, elbowing his way the crowd of lab technicians that had gathered to watch, and looked through the one-way glass at the melee going on inside. It was Daelott versus at least a dozen zoanoids of varying models, and Daelott was winning. Right now he had a Voll by the ankles, and was swinging it around like a huge, furry club, walloping zoanoids left and right. "So, how long has this been going for?"

"At least an hour, sir." One of the techs answered. "We've had to bring in fresh zoanoids twice."

"So, Daelott's stamina is at expected levels?"

Daelott tossed the Voll into a small cluster of zoanoids, bowling them over and sending the tossed one into the wall. "Yes. But we'd already guessed that from the fact that he routinely spends up to 4 days in Zoaform."

"And his agility and reflexes?" Mondo's question answered itself as 2 Volls, a Soln, and a prototype Solkan quadruple-teamed Daelott. 30 seconds later, the Volls were recovering from having their heads smashed together, the Solkan, (which looked much like a Soln with the exception of rougher armor, more horizontally-oriented head spikes, and two HUGE claws and a smaller thumb claw on each hand) was trying to pull its claws free from the floor, and the Soln was laying on the floor, having been an unfortunate target for a kick to the groin-chink. "Never mind."

"Hmmm. If I'd known that Daelott would be so. unbalanced, I would've picked a different subject." Daelott ducked a heavy punch aimed at his head from a Gregole on loan from the Japan branch and thrust his palm into its nose, causing it to break and the creature's eyes to tear up, much like the same thing done on a human.

"Maybe, but you said yourself that this guy was probably the only one in the country who would survive processing. That, and his strangeness is actually beneficial in some cases." There was a large 'WHOMP' noise as Daelott and a flight-type zoanoid crashed to the floor, locked in some weird type of wrestling hold.

"Such as?"

"Like with the Lost Numbers. Normally they're difficult to control, but Daelott doesn't seem to have any trouble at all. Particularly with, well. You know."

"Whom do I know?"

"Umm, err. Lepiter."

"Oh." As Lost Numbers went, Lepiter was one of the most difficult to control. In one of the most brazen displays of insubordination ever, Lepiter had bitch-slapped the entire lab staff and kicked Mondo in the balls, hard. If she hadn't knocked Mondo unconscious with that kick, she probably would've ended up telekinetically crushed. "How are those two getting along, anyway?"

"We're not entirely sure. Daelott's not willing to let anybody pry into his private life, and nobody's willing to ask Lepiter as long as they're within kicking range. But we're guessing that their relationship is due to their odd mental states."

"Fascinating."

"Indeed. This is perhaps the strangest behavior I've seen since- ACK!" The lab tech almost jumped into Mondo's arms as Daelott performed some sort of judo-flip on a Soln zoanoid, causing it to crash into the glass, its horn busting right through.

"Get back in there," Mondo said to the zoanoid as he shoved it back into the fray. "You were saying?"

"Um, yes," The lab techie wiped away the fear-sweat and continued. "As I was saying, this is the strangest behavior I've seen since the last time you had an idea with the, um. "Creativity" of Daelott's.

"Oh well, good riddance to bad ideas, I say. At least his corpse was the only evidence of him anybody ever found. Jeez, what was I smoking when I came up with the idea for him?" Mondo watched as Daelott dodged a punch from another Soln, grabbed its arm, planted his foot in its shoulder-chink, and pulled, dislocating the creature's arm at the shoulder. Soln roared in pain, holding its arm as it fell to its knees, and collapsed.

"Hey, boss, are we done yet? This is getting kinda boring." Daelott put his compounded eye up to the hole that Soln's horn had made.

"In a minute. I want to test one last thing." Mondo telepathically commanded all the zoanoids to get out of the proving grounds, and they emitted a collective groan and limped, crawled, and dragged themselves out of there. "All right. Bring in the Ateme test type."

The tech stared at Mondo like he was crazy. "Sir? Are you sure about that? I mean, we just finished adjusting him."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to send Ateme to his grave. I just want to test whether or not he can withstand transforming and fighting in his 3 forms. Now send him in!" The tech nodded nervously and pushed an intercom button.

"Ateme, report to the proving grounds immediately." A few seconds later, what looked like a very creepy little human zipped into the room, blundered through the lab techs, skidding to a halt directly in front of Mondo and throwing up a ridiculous-looking salute. At first glance, you'd think it was some kind of goblin-thing. No hair, big pointy nose, equally big, googly eyes, no chin, pointy ears, and the fact that he barely stood 4'3".

"Sir! I am here, Sir! What do you want me to do, Sir! ?" Ateme was enthusiastic, if not all that bright.

"I want you to go in there and fight Daelott." Mondo pointed to the arena. Through the glass Ateme saw Daelott picking stuff out from between his armor plates with what looked like a piece of someone's armor, or claw, or some type of bony protuberance.

"F-fight him? But sir, he's." All of Ateme's enthusiasm drained in a half- second.

"You're not REALLY going to fight him. You're just going to transform a few times and we'll see what you can do." Mondo put on his most comforting face and tone of voice. "Now go in there and make me proud, boy."

Ateme swelled with pride at being called Mondo's 'boy', and saluted again. "Sir Yes SIR, Sir! I will do it Sir!" He then trotted off through the quadruple-reinforced door to the arena and stood ready to give it his proverbial all.

"All right, Ateme. Assume Bio-laser form and attack." Mondo ordered through the hole in the glass. Ateme grinned, and transformed, practically exploding out of his uniform as he grew to nearly twice his height, his skin turning an angry red, his finger and toenails turning into sharp little claws. Large bio-lasers appeared on his shoulders, each a multi- faceted lens with what looked like a large collection of fleshy tubes behind them, going from each facet into the shoulders and back of the creature. Its face was like something out of a sci-fi movie, dominated by some kind of plate that looked like someone had half-folded a piece of sheet metal diagonally, bent it until it curved 90 degrees, and affixed it to the creature's face. Ateme's eyes peeked out from hollows in the plate and whatever mouthparts it had were obscured by it. Daelott took up a battle stance, and readied for whatever attack Ateme would throw at him. Little did he know that Mondo was in total control of the zoanoid he was fighting against. "Ateme, charge up bio-lazers to full and fire at Daelott." The lenses on the shoulder cannons began to glow brightly and Daelott just managed to generate a glowing green shield before the lasers fired, hitting the barrier and exploding, throwing up a cloud of dust. "Now! While he's blinded by the dust! Transform into hyper-muscle form and charge him!" Ateme changed again, transforming into what looked like a dark blue alligator creature with 2 huge fins running down its back, and charged Daelott, who was still trying to waft the dust away. Daelott didn't see the fist until it was less than a millimeter away from his face.

"Ohno! I'msosorryI'msosorryI'msosorryI'msosorrEEHEEHEE!!!" Ateme dropped to his knees and apologized profusely as Daelott groaned, having been floored by the unexpected impact. Ateme continued his pathetic whimpering as Daelott managed to get back to his feet. His face-tentacles bent backwards, and then shot out toward the sobbing zoa.

"Ateme! Jump and transform into flight form, NOW!" Mondo mentally commanded Ateme, who did as he was told. He jumped up just in time to avoid Daelott's tentacles, and transformed into a skinny bat-winged thing that flew up and out of Daelott's reach. Not to be denied revenge for that face-denting, Daelott leapt into the air and took flight, flexing his telekinetic muscle. Daelott chased the flying Ateme(who was still apologizing for hitting him) around the chamber for several minutes before catching up and pounding hard on the creature's back, knocking it to the floor. Daelott landed beside him.

"Now we're even." Daelott swaggered over to the glass. "Hey boss! We done yet?" He shouted, "'Cuz I'm startin' to get bored in here!"

"Um, sir?" One of the lab techs tapped Mondo on the shoulder. "Rocies says you've got a call in your office."

"Tell him to take a message, I'm busy."

"Sir, Rocies said to tell you it's 'him'." The tech replied. Mondo's face lost expression, except for his eyes open abnormally wide and shining with expectation.

"Daelott, we're done here. Now if you'll excuse me." Mondo dashed out faster than anybody had ever seen him move, and was back in his office before anyone could stop him. Rocies was on the phone, talking to whoever "him" was.

"Ah, he's just arrived." Rocies put his hand on the reciever and excitedly mouthed "It's HIM!" Mondo grabbed the phone from Rocies, gathered his composure, and spoke.

"Dr. Balcus, it's a pleasure to hear from you."

"Hello Mondo. You know why I've called." Balcus's voice was typically cold and emotionless.

"You have nothing to worry about, Sir. I've given Daelott every test my branch is equipped for, and he's passed them all. I assure you that the Daelott zoaform is perfectly suited for combat."

"That's not exactly why I called. It's about the prototype's mental state. Remember, I can read his mind from here."

"Ah, yes. THAT. Well, I've been running genetic potential scans almost nonstop and I've got at least half a dozen candidates from the Chronos officer pool. As for the prototype. Well, he's just going to be too difficult to reprocess into something more obedient."

"Hmm." Mondo wondered for a second whether that was a good "Hmm." Or a bad "Hmm." "Send me the final status report once you're done selecting the processing candidates and have disposed of the prototype. I have a good feeling about your latest creation." And with that, he hung up.

Mondo slowly put the receiver back on the hook, a smile slowly spreading across his face. He stood there before breaking into a full-blown happy dance. "Rocies, give all non-essential personnel the day off and order me a pizza! My future at Chronos is shining ever-brighter!" Meanwhile, someone else's future was dimming. Daelott had been psychically eavesdropping all the while and the events that had transpired were hanging over him like the sword of Damocles. Why? Why was he to be destroyed? Why couldn't they just keep him around as an example, like they did with the other lost numbers and prototypes? He wandered the Chronos building for hours, his wanderings eventually leading him to just outside the room where Lepiter was housed. He knocked, and entered.

"Daelott? You okay?" Lepiter asked, seeing the gloom writ over Daelott's face. Daelott looked over the closest thing he had to a significant other, her normally pretty face a mask of concern. She would be considered quite the beautiful dark-skinned woman, except for the fact that her stomach had a large scar that stretched from her ribcage to her pelvis, and the skin around it was discolored. He smiled, sensing her concern, even without the use of his power. "No. I want you to gather every zoanoid that I still have under my command.

We're leaving."

Development code: ATT-066 Serial Number: YZN-030-MO Name:Ateme Present Status: Multi-phase prototype

Information: Created by Doctor Mondo in an attempt to create a viable zoanoid type out of the ill-fatted ATT line, this particular model does not possess the full polymorphic abilities of the previous attempts. Instead, it possesses 3 different zoaforms that it can change between as the situation changes. Information on each form is summarized below.

Bio-Blaster form: This form possesses 2 biolasers mounted on its shoulders, each consisting of 20 hexagonal "lenses". Each one can be fired individually for an extremely low-power blast or charged and fired simultaneously for a much higher-level blast. However, its strength is only 3 times that of a normal human, and its durability leaves much to be desired. Also, it is not much faster than a normal human.
Height: 202 cm
Weight: 106 kg

Flight-type form: Capable of flight, this form posesses a flight-speed of 50 km/h and can fly for up to 1000 km before stopping. It is capable of mid- air manouvres that make it nearly unhittable by any anti-air weaponry, which is neccessary due to its lack of durability and strength. It is only 4 times stronger than a normal human, and its durability is not that much better than its bio-blaster form.

Height: 199 cm
Weight: 90 kg

Hyper-Muscle form: This form is designed purely for strength and durability, and has more physical power than both of the other forms combined. In addition to a bite pressure of over 2000 kg/cm^2, it possesses 11 times the strength of a normal human, and thick, scaly skin that can withstand any form of conventional weapons fire.

Height: 223 cm
Weight: 141 kg

Development Code: FLT- 1101 Serial Number: YZN-020-MO Name:Lepiter Present Status: Defective Incomplete Zoanoid

Information: Created at Chronos Canada as an attempt to create a viable female zoanoid, development of this model was halted after genetic potential tests to determine the success rate of future processing revealed a success rate of 1 in 100 million. While official development has ceased, the processing file is often tweaked by scientists with time on their hands in an attempt to create the first mass-produced female zoanoid, and reap the immense reward.

Abilities: Lepiter was designed as a flight-type zoanoid with a 20 km/h flight speed and a 50 km travel radius. This model is also capable of spitting a highly corrosive phlegm that can melt through a mid-sized car. Durability is above-average for a flight-type zoanoid, and it's strength is 8 times that of a normal human.

Height: 215 cm Weight: 110 kg