When the three of them made it to the bottom of the stairways—all of the freakin' stairways—Ryan leaned back against the wall and waited for Agito to make up his mind about where they were going to go next. Since Ryan himself knew pretty much dick-all about the inner workings of Chronos bases, he was content to let Agito lead them out of this particular little hellhole, even if they guy was acting a little too uptight for his taste. It could all just be from the stress, and Ryan was going to at least try to give the guy the benefit of all possible doubt. At least until Mr. Agito Makashima proved himself one way or the other, that was.

Looking over at Sho again, Ryan watched the other boy make his way over to the wall and lean against it. Sho was the kind of person he could relate to more easily: there was no having to guess if what he was seeing was the real deal or some kind of act when he was dealing with the guy. Still, the fact that'd he'd known Sho a lot longer than he had Agito might have had more to do with how easy it was to relate to him.

"Crouger, Fukamachi, follow me. I have found one of the sewer accesses for this building."

"Imagine my joy," Ryan drawled, rolling his eyes.

"Would you prefer to try and fight your way out through all the Zoanoids inside this building?" Agito asked, more snappishly than he needed to as far as Ryan was concerned.

"Duh, no." Ryan shook his head, resisting the urge to roll his eyes again. "But you can't expect me to enjoy walking into a dark place filled with rats, crud vapors, and things that aren't polite to talk about in mixed company."

"This is the most expedient way to exit the facility," Agito said, eyes narrowing slightly.

"You know, you're the only guy I've met that would use 'expedient' in a casual conversation," Ryan observed, waking up to the sewer access.

Agito ignored him, but Ryan truthfully hadn't been expecting any other response. Sho seemed to find the observation a bit funny, so Ryan winked at him. It was good to know that he had at least one guy he could understand in this mess with him. Agito's attitude was starting to grate on him; the guy was just too damn uptight. As he picked his way carefully into the sewer, Sho following close behind, Ryan made up his mind that he would at least try to get Mr. Agito Makashima to loosen up before passing judgment on him. It was always a good idea to give someone you'd just met the benefit of all possible doubt.

He'd been dead on the mark about one thing, though: there were some seriously nasty crud vapors down these tunnels. They would have probably been a good way to dissuade any of those wolf-looking Zoanoids from following them; those things probably had a sense of smell that was at least as good as a dog's, and this place was rank. Ryan was just glad that he didn't have an enhanced sense of smell. Walking through this stink-hole, while it was a very good way of keeping all the Zoanoids in the building from trying to follow them back to wherever the hell they were going, wasn't at all pleasant to be in.

Ryan knew he was harping on the sheer nastiness of the place he was currently walking through, but he honestly couldn't care less. It was a fucking sewer, for Christ's sake—if he couldn't bitch about being forced to walk through a sewer, then there wasn't much to say. Not that he was really saying anything, aside from the words in his head. And he wouldn't be saying anything anytime soon, since he really didn't want to breathe any more of the disgusting air down here than was strictly necessary.

He was starting to get a bit antsy, though, a little jittery, the way he always did when there was tension in the air. He was also starting to get a bit queasy from all the vile-smelling fumes he was currently breathing in. All things considered, Ryan Crouger really wasn't at his most clear-headed. What he did next was therefore understandable to someone who knew him; Agito, however, didn't have the benefits of such knowledge.

"Can we get out of here now? I don't really think they're going to be looking for us anymore, and if I have to spend much longer down here I know I'm going to throw up on someone's shoes."

"Control yourself, Crouger," Mr. Agito Makashima said, with just the right amount of condescension to set Ryan in his already-volatile mood off.

"Look, your Supreme Assholishness, you might be able to block out all the nasty smells in this place, but some of us down here are normal. Now I want out of this hellish little stinkhole, or I'm going to start getting really cranky."

"Save your energy for walking, Crouger."

That was the last straw. Two large steps forward put Ryan squarely behind Agito, and before the other boy could react, Ryan shoved him hard in the right side. Unable to balance himself properly after such a completely unexpected attack, Ryan's second shove was able to send him toppling into the fetid water on the left side of the raised walkway they'd been following.

For about a second, the filthy water was still, only the gentle ripples remaining as evidence that it had been disturbed. Then Agito, soaked and dripping scummy filth from his clothes and hair, surged back to the surface. The fact that he was spitting out something gave Ryan the impression that he'd stupidly opened his mouth when he'd hit, or when he was under all that cruddy water. Either way, it was pretty funny.

Funny enough that Ryan just had to laugh.

"You're completely aware that you look like a drowned rat, right?" Ryan said, laughing both at the disgruntled expression that Mr. Agito Makashima was now turning on him and at the sewer-water that was dripping from every part of his body.

"Crouger!"

"Yeah, that's my last name, Chachi," Ryan drawled, smirking at the boy currently glaring at him. "You wanna try pronouncing my first, for a change?"

With an inarticulate roar, Agito dove at him. Ryan, laughing dodged his first punch, and followed up with one of his own. Slamming his fist into Agito's stomach, nearly knocking the older boy back into the fetid water, Ryan grinned.

"You might wanna watch who you're pissing off, Goth-boy," Ryan needled, smirking. "I don't think you're on very stable footing right now."

"Crouger-"

"I have a first name, you know," Ryan drawled, mildly annoyed.

Still, the fact that Agito – Mr. Annoying himself – was practically a hair's breadth away from taking another dunk in the sewer water was enough to amuse Ryan to the point where he didn't quite care just what the other Guyver was saying. Of course, seeing him flailing around like an idiot was only half as funny as watching him take an unscheduled dunk in the sewer water. And, now that none of them had all that much to take their minds off of how badly this place stunk, Ryan was perfectly willing to try and dunk the bastard again just to keep his mind off that fact.

As Mr. Annoying took a break, either because he'd run out of hot air or because he wanted to see how his fellow Guyver was reacting to what he'd just said, Ryan charged him. Slamming his foot into Agito's gut, Ryan laughed as the jerk overbalanced and fell right back into the sludge. It was starting to matter less and less that he was stuck down here with Goth-boy and his oversized ego. In fact, if he was going to be stuck down here for however the hell long it took for the three of them to get out of this stinking sewer, then he was going to make sure that he had fun for the duration. No matter how much Goth-boy and his titanic ego didn't like it.