Fukamachi had told him about the battle that had taken place between Aptom, Crouger, and Fukamachi himself. It was a disturbing thing to consider, that Aptom might try to harness the powers of a Guyver by devouring one of those who possessed that power. If he had been willing to try it with Crouger, who had merely been bonded to his Unit for eight months, there was a chance that he might try again, this time with someone who had been bonded a great deal longer. That was not something that he wanted to ever chance happening to him, so he would have to find out from Crouger just where that Lost Unit was so that he would be able to hunt him down and destroy him. Agito would not tolerate such a threat being loose.
"Crouger, wake up."
Crouger moved fitfully under the covers, turning away from him as he sought presumably to get back to sleep. Agito wasn't in the mood to deal with Crouger's annoying habit of ignoring any situation that did not suit his tastes, so he grabbed Crouger's bedclothes and tossed them onto the floor. Digging his fingers into Crouger's right shoulder, Agito was completely unprepared for the other Guyver to slap him across the face.
It seemed that Crouger had a good backhand in addition to his formidable right hook.
"Hey, sorry about." Crouger's eyes opened fully, and he paused. "Oh, it's just you."
The fact that Crouger thought he wasn't worthy of an apology was irksome enough, but the fact that he immediately disregarded Agito's presence entirely – turning over on the bed and closing his eyes again – made the situation all the more infuriating. Dealing with Crouger was always an exercise in frustration, especially when the other Guyver was determined to be obstinate like this. Agito would have personally preferred to let someone else deal with him, since for some reason or other, he seemed to be partial to Fukamachi. Still, the fact that Crouger would often treat him as a younger brother –in spite of the fact that Fukamachi was the older of the two of them – made it all the more difficult to deal with him at times. Fukamachi was a necessary part of his plans, at least for the time being, but Crouger tended to interfere with those simply with his mere presence.
His encouragement of Fukamachi to pursue his own goals and interests, outside of what was necessary for him to know, plus the fact that Crouger – knowingly or not, though Agito was more inclined to believe the former – encouraged Fukamachi to defy him, though Crouger called it "growing up" and "finding his own way". As if there was a pressing need for Fukamachi to start off on his own.
Agito would decide when Fukamachi left, when his usefulness to the goal Agito had set for himself was ended and he could cast the annoying, weak-willed, younger Guyver off like so many old rags. What Fukamachi did after that wasn't anything that Agito could bring himself to care about. Fukamachi's affairs were his own, insofar as they did nothing to interfere with Agito's own plans.
It was for that reason that Crouger and Fukamachi needed to be kept separate as much as possible when there was not a pressing need for them to interact. Off the battlefield, there was no such pressing need, and so he had worked to keep the two of them separated. Unfortunately, with Crouger's mother moved to another one of his concealed safehouses, there was little to distract him from making a nuisance of himself. Still, there was always the option of having Crouger moved to the same safehouse as his mother, but that would mean there would be an extra annoyance of having to coordinate with him when they set out to attack the Chronos bases in this area.
But there was time to think of ways to get Crouger out of his way later. Right now Agito wanted to know if Aptom would present any kind of a threat to him. For that, he needed to speak with the other Guyver.
"Crouger!"
"Go jump in a fire pit," Crouger muttered, sounding as if he was already halfway back to sleep.
"Wake up, Crouger," Agito growled, his patience almost completely at an end.
"Bite me."
Ripping the covers from Crouger's placid form, Agito buried the fingers of his right hand in Crouger's bright red hair and pulled him out of bed. Then he stumbled back as Crouger's fist smashed into his nose. Falling back to land in a completely undignified heap, Agito opened his eyes just in time to see Crouger's heel before it collided with his forehead.
Lying on the floor, stunned and in pain, Agito heard Crouger throw himself back onto the bed.
XxXxX
)Well, I think it's safe to say you showed him, kid.(
)You know, Snake-head? I think you're right.(
Of course, just as soon as Ryan had settled himself back into bed, he heard the sound of the door opening. Deciding not to bother with whomever it was trying to get his attention, Ryan turned over and fluffed up his pillow while shoving it back into the space between his neck and shoulder.
"Agito?"
Of course. Out of all the people who could have come into the room, it just had to be Sho. The guy seemed pretty nice and all, but there were times that it was all Ryan could do to keep himself from grabbing the guy and either slapping or shaking him until his brain started working. The guy could be way too noble for his own good—either that or too sentimental. Case in point being whenever they were confronted with Imakarum the Psycho. Sure, that guy was pretty good at pressing emotional hot-buttons, but if Sho wasn't already so damn soft, that kind of thing wouldn't work nearly as well.
Rolling over under the covers, Ryan pulled them up just a bit higher and hoped that Sho would go away. It wasn't that he didn't like the guy, but more often than not, whenever Sho showed up there was something to do with Chronos in the offing. And things to do with Chronos generally involved a lot of screaming, running, and general havoc. Ryan really wasn't in the mood to deal with havoc at the moment.
"Don't be fooled, Fukamachi," King Bastard said – and couldn't he mind his own business for once in his whole damned life? – sounding annoyed. "Crouger's just pretending to sleep so he'll be left alone."
"And I love you so much, too, asshole," Ryan growled, sitting back up and settling the covers in his lap. "If you're calling me in for dinner, Sho, give the people my regards and tell them I'll be late. I've got some blankets to get reacquainted with."
His piece said, Ryan flopped back into bed, tucking the pillow back into place as he closed his eyes.
"Ryan?"
If it had been anyone but Sho – maybe Shizu, if he was feeling particularly charitable about the disturbance – Ryan would have punched them and then dealt with the consequences later. But beating up on Sho was like kicking a puppy: temporarily satisfying, but he'd start feeling guilty about it almost as soon as he'd finished. So Ryan sat back up, trying not to look as annoyed as he felt.
"What?"
"This isn't about dinner, Ryan," Sho said, sounding worried enough that Ryan took a closer look at him.
"Fair enough," Ryan said, leaning back slightly on his hands. "What is it about?"
"We've discovered another one of Chronos' bases in this area. Agito told me that they call it the Pillars of Heaven."
"Yeah, that sounds like something those pretentious bastards would go in for," Ryan said, irritably scratching at a stubborn itch on the back of his head. "So, let me guess: we're going to fly out to wherever the hell this place is, and then proceed to knock it down and/or blow it up. Am I right?"
"That's what we were planning to do," Sho said, smiling slightly.
"Well, I guess I can tag along for something like that," Ryan said, stretching. "Now, if you'd be willing to haul your little buddy out of here," Ryan said, jerking his thumb at Agito, "I'll take the opportunity to get dressed and meet you out in the living room and we can get out of here."
"Don't make us wait too long, Ryan," Sho said, smiling as he went to haul Agito's ass out of the room.
"Don't worry about that," Ryan said, turning to wink at Sho over his shoulder. "Once I'm out of bed, I have a bit of trouble getting back to sleep."
)You're going to be making some trouble for Chronos, eh, kid?(
)Yeah. You got a problem with that, Snake-head?(
)No. It's not as if anyone I care about is still alive in there. I don't think even he could have made it out of a collapsing, erupting volcano… Anyway, good luck, kid.(