+Good luck out there, Sho.+
+Yeah; thanks. Good luck to you too, Ryan.+
They split up after that, and he climbed to the top of a stack of crates and activated his Gravity Controller. Flying out through one of the windows of the warehouse, he pushed the thing for all the speed it could give him. That turned out to be quite a lot, as he managed to get a fair distance into the air before he leveled off somewhere. "Somewhere" was really high: he was probably about a hundred feet over the tops of even the tallest buildings.
The buildings they were supposed to attack were pretty damn obvious, painted a sort of halfway shiny silver and positively towering over anything else in the area. If what King Bastard said was right, and there wasn't really any reason to doubt him when he was talking about things like that, there were going to be an ass-load of Zoanoids in between them and whatever their goal was. Of course, it was pretty easy to figure that their goal was to pound the place into rubble—the underground levels, too. It was starting to become obvious that all Chronos bases had underground levels, even the ones that didn't look like they'd have that kind of setup.
Focusing on the building, he could just see Sho arrowing straight at the middle of the skyscraper on the left. Since the guys on the right were obviously going to start taking exception to that kind of thing real soon, he'd just have to get to them before they got to Sho.
)Things are going to get real interesting when you hit that building, kid.(
)Thanks so much for stating the blindingly obvious, Snake-head; I really needed to hear it.(
)You've never faced off against the soldiers in one of Chronos' top-tier bases. Whether you think so or not, kid, you do need to hear this. The top five floors of the building are going to be filled with elite Hyper Zoanoids. Getting through them with all your limbs intact is going to take everything you've got—you may even want to use that weird new upgrade you got from that spaceship… thing.(
)That reminds me, I still haven't managed to think up something good to call that thing. I sure as hell can't just keep calling it "that thing".(
)You can name the thing later, kid. The way you're moving, you're probably in range of the flying Hypers by now.(
)Imagine my joy.(
Just as his own personal voice-in-head-guy decided to shut up, a swarm of bird- and bug-type Zoanoids came screaming out at him, in some cases literally screaming. It was kind of annoying, but it wasn't like he hadn't been expecting it. These Zoanoids had all probably heard what he and his fellow Guyvers had done to their people, so it wasn't really that surprising that they'd try to puff themselves up any way they could.
It was annoying as hell, but not really surprising.
XxXxX
The blaring of the attack alarms, so sudden as to surprise him into dropping his fork, drew Talvoss' attention completely—his and every other Hyper Zoanoid's. It was one hell of a way to start the day. Not that any of those goddamned Guyvers seemed to give a shit what they thought or felt. Leaving his food for the janitors to clean up, Talvoss joined the stream of elite Hyper Zoanoids on their way to defend the Pillars of Heaven. This place was one of Chronos' most important bases.
Overlord Shin was here a lot – like he was currently – and there was also the matter of Lord Fried'rich being here at the moment as well.
Talvoss' duty – like that of every Zoanoid, Hyper or not, in the building – was to defend the two Zoalords with his life if it came down to it. Not really a happy thought when facing a single Guyver, let alone three, but it was what he had signed on for when he'd become a Hyper Zoanoid. Everyone knew that; some people just didn't like to think about it. It was pointless to deny the truth, though—pointless and stupid and Talvoss didn't let himself indulge in that.
Transforming, Talvoss launched himself out the window along with the rest of the flying Zoaforms. There were a few Standards mixed in with the group he was part of, Valvatos and Brelimos and Devold, but mostly it was he and his fellow Hypers. His sharp eyes spotted the Guyver quickly – that new kid with the gray armor, Ryan Crouger – but he didn't bother saying anything since he knew the others would have spotted him just as soon as he had. Saying it would just annoy them.
XxXxX
The air was full of flying Zoanoids. He could see some Hypers and a whole hell of a lot of Standards. He'd have been defending the building with the rest of them – personal aide to a Zoalord or not, he would have still had a duty to Chronos over all – if he hadn't been permanently bonded to Ryan and all. He didn't know whether to thank Aptom or damn the bastard to the depths of hell.
On the one hand – Ryan would have made some crack about hands at this point, if he'd been paying any attention – there was much less risk of dying while he was like this. But as he watched the kid slice the head off a Valvatos and kick it into the crowd like a soccer ball, he had to admit that there were downsides. Killing his people, his comrades, wasn't something he liked to participate in. Even if he wasn't really the one doing the killing, it still grated—still hurt, in its way.
XxXxX
Snake-head had been unusually quiet while he was fighting. He'd have been willing to call it brooding, if he hadn't known that they could take naps while the other was in control. He could really be doing anything – for a certain limited definition of "anything", anyway – while he was slashing his way through these guys. Then again, Ryan knew that he wouldn't be all that happy if some guy was using his body to kill a bunch of other humans, so maybe he was really brooding. It wasn't as if he could do anything about it either way, though, so it was probably best that he stopped thinking in that direction. Those kinds of thoughts could quickly get him killed.
Blasting his way through a persistent knot of bird-type Zoanoids with the Mega-Smasher, he made his way closer to the building. It was kind of funny, thinking that these guys had once been human and were now some kind of weird bird guys who were hell-bent on killing him.
Of course, it wasn't really like he was all that human himself, anymore.
Taking another deep breath and slicing off the head of something that bore a startling resemblance to a parrot, he waded farther into the battle. He wasn't done with this thing yet.
XxXxX
When he looked up, he could see Ryan. The other Guyver had already engaged what looked like a full three battalions of Chronos' arial troops.
+Ryan, do you want any help up there?+
+Nah, I'm fine. You just keep your mind on what you're doing.+
+I will.+
Turning his attention back to the building in front of him just as the Guyver's hyper-sensors reacted to a sudden charge of Zoanoids coming from above him.
+Crap! I think some of them might have made it past me,+ Ryan said, sounding more annoyed than anything. +You might have some interesting company coming soon, Sho.+
+Thanks for letting me know, Ryan.+
Extending his Vibration Blades, he sliced the heads and wings from the Zoanoids diving to attack him. Ryan was doing a good job of trying to protect him, but even he couldn't be everywhere at once. So now it was up to him to defend himself.
He was just glad that Mr. Murakami wasn't here.
XxXxX
As he made his way through the sewers, he tried not to think about Crouger's words. The younger Guyver was simply an annoyance and clearly trying to provoke him. Despite the filthy stench in these tunnels, this was indeed the best way to access the lower levels of this particular Chronos base. Nothing that Crouger said or did could make him forget that fact.
Also, since he was currently in Guyver form so that he could easily deal with any and all Zoanoids that would be protecting the lower levels, he was not required to deal with the stench at all. It was much more sensible to travel this way, since there were likely to be at least some guards down in the laboratories to ensure that the scientists stayed at their assigned tasks, especially in light of both Odagiri's and Yamamura's defection, as well as that of the scientists in the bottommost levels of the now-destroyed Relics Point base. No one in Chronos would ever wish to be responsible for such a debacle as that to reoccur.
So there was no reason to believe that he would have an easy time of things once he emerged from the sewers into the places where he could be seen by any of Chronos' agents. Human or non-human, the distinction was starting to become less important as this war of theirs dragged on.