The candidates had been selected, with no more input from Imakarum's son than to "make sure they were real strong," though he honestly hadn't been expecting more than the most rudimentary criteria from the child. A Zoalord he may very well have been, but that did not change the fact that he was a child. Fried'rich knew this better than most, though the staff of Cloud Tower had come to realize it as well.

They treated him fairly for the most part, though a fair number of the human staff were leery around the boy at present. It was only to be expected, though – the thought of something like that happening to such a young child was an anathema to him as well.

There was simply no way to return Imakarum's son to the way he had been before coming into contact with the former Zoalord Reholt Gyou, to say nothing of the forced-growth he had been put through before he had been processed. The fact remained that the Zoalord process was irreversible once completed. The child was adapting, as children often did, to his new body and the power that came with it. Still, Fried'rich knew that he was not alone in wishing that the boy once named Kenji Murakami had never been forced to endure such things as he had.

The reports on the progress of the child's Alvix model Zoanoids sat on his desk; he had already perused them and made note of the important information. Kenji had asked that he hide them, just in case Imakarum came in and saw them. He'd smiled indulgently and then explained to the boy that there was very little chance of his father finding the progress reports unless he decided to search Fried'rich's desk.

He'd gone on to explain that Imakarum, favored though he seemed to be by Lord Alkanphel, would not be so rude as to impinge on another Zoalord's private space without expressed permission, which he did not have in this case. Kenji had seemed satisfied by this explanation. Now all that remained was to finalize the Alvix as a viable breed of Standard Zoanoid.

There would be a waiting period of five more weeks while that was taken care of, and Kenji seemed to be getting impatient to inform his father of his accomplishments. He had told the boy that he was welcome to tell Imakarum if that was what he truly desired, but he had been rebuffed rather completely: Kenji obviously had his heart set on presenting his father with a finalized Zoanoid model. Fried'rich could understand his motivation – the desire to please a parent was probably almost instinctive for any child – but learning the value of patience was hard for someone his age.

Growing up was like that for any child, however, and Fried'rich was not going to coddle the boy simply because he had endured so many hardships in his short life. Imakarum himself did more than enough of that. Not being the boy's father gave him the opportunity to see the boy in a way that he doubted Imakarum ever would.

The child was staying in the lower levels of Cloud Tower, separated from the Lost Numbers by seven levels. It would not be good for a Zoalord, especially a child like Kenji, to be exposed to Lost Number Zoanoids. They couldn't be controlled by any means that a Zoalord could employ and were likely to attack him or attempt to trap him down in the lower levels.

Imakarum would be displeased if his son came to harm while he was under the care of the staff of Cloud Tower. Given how overprotective the man tended to be, he was more than likely to kill those responsible. It was best not to take such chances with the lives of both his staff and the life of Imakarum's son.

The group of six Alvix models were a mere week and a half from completing their processing; Kenji would be pleased when he heard that.

Still, there were more important things that had to be taken care of before he could tell the boy that the Zoanoids he had had a hand in creating were nearly ready to be presented to his father. There were still the matters of the Anti Chronos Task Force and the Fourth and Fifth Guyvers to consider.

The fact that the boy had managed to escape from the Dead Sea Plant, a place where the security was very tight and there were hundreds of thousands of Zoanoids to deal with any escapees, was not something that gave him a great deal of confidence. That he had also met up with the First Guyver, as Imakarum had reported when he had battled them and Shin had confirmed from his own observations, was also worrisome. There would be a great deal of work needed to locate the First and Fifth Guyvers.

The Zoanoids among the Colorado Springs Police had informed Shin that Sho Fukamachi and Ryan Crouger had left for the latter's house. That would make it a great deal easier to locate them. Shin had ordered some of his Zoanoids to monitor the neighborhood where the boy lived in case that one of them was to leave the house. Such a method would make it a great deal easier to find and capture the two boys.

Now all that remained was to wait them out.

XxXxXxX

It had been two and a half weeks since he had been invited to stay with Ryan at his house. The guest room was a great deal larger than the room he'd had at home, but sleeping on the bed was a new enough experience that he didn't get very much sleep. The breakfasts that Ryan's mother had cooked for him were delicious, and he couldn't help but feel that he should be doing something more for her than what he was doing. Ryan was the one who took out the trash (though there weren't as many kinds as he was used to) and cleared off the table when the meal was done.

He'd tried to offer to do that himself, but since he didn't understand much of what they were saying, and he didn't think they understood him, there really wasn't any way for him to offer anything to them. He didn't like that very much, but there really wasn't anything that he could do about that. There had been times that he'd vacuumed the floor or swept the kitchen for them, but he still didn't feel like it was enough sometimes. Ryan had offered him a place in his home and food to eat while he was there; he should have been able to do something to help.

+Fukamachi?+

+Agito? Are you going to be here soon?+

+I will be at the house by the end of the day. It will take me some time to locate the signal from yours and Crouger's Guyvers.+

+I'll tell him that you'll be here soon. What are you going to do about his family?+

+I'll have my soldiers take them into protective custody,+ he said.

+I'm sure he'll be happy to hear that,+ he answered, smiling. +I'll go tell him.+

+Very well, then. I will speak to you later, Fukamachi.+

When he could no longer hear Agito's voice inside his head, Sho turned and headed for Ryan's room. He had to tell the other Guyver what was going to be happening soon – there wasn't much time for them to get ready to leave the house. Still, it was better that they leave as soon as they could, rather than wait for Chronos to capture them.

+Ryan?+

+What is it, Sho?+

+Can I come in?+ he asked, standing outside Ryan's door.

+Sure, what did you want to talk about?+ Ryan asked, as he opened the door and let Sho in.

They both made for Ryan's bed, where Sho noticed one of Ryan's large, flimsy, full-color manga lying spread out. It was still open, so he'd probably been reading it when Sho had knocked.

+So, sit down and tell me what's on your mind.+

Sitting down on Ryan's bed once the younger boy had cleared a space for him, Sho took a deep breath. He didn't know quite how to phrase what he was going to say, but maybe it was best that he said it and didn't worry so much about how it sounded.

+Agito's going to come today, Ryan. He's going to be taking your family into protective custody, since Chronos is probably going to be coming after them, too… after what you did to Mr. Murakami.+

+You're talking about that crazy guy who tried to kill me?+ Ryan paused, then before Sho could think up an answer, he started speaking again. +I don't think that guy's who you think he is, Sho. He really didn't seem to like it when you called him Murakami, either.+

But that's who he is… he couldn't help thinking, though Ryan most likely would have started arguing with him about it. He'd never known Mr. Murakami, and he probably wouldn't understand. It was best not to bring it up again, he decided.