When Balkus had dispatched him to find the littlest of Chronos' Zoalords, Hekkaring had been rather incensed: the old man had plenty of junior assistants who were practically falling all over themselves in their rush to kiss his feet. He could have just as easily sent one of them to retrieve the boy from Imakarum's room. One of them might have even survived the attempt to get the new Twelfth Zoalord to let his precious son out of his sight for half a day. But no, that old man had chosen him to go into the lion's den and procure the little cub.
There were times Hekkaring was certain that Hamilcal Balkus would have liked nothing more than to get rid of him—in a particularly painful way, if this assignment was anything to go by. Still, there were projects he had full control of, and he was respected by a fair amount of the junior scientists. That old codger would have to work to get rid of him.
Still, for the moment he would have to think of a good explanation to convince Imakarum Mirabilis – an unstable and highly dangerous madman if he had ever seen one – to give up one of the only things that kept him at least relatively stable. It was far from an enviable assignment. Meeting with Imakarum Mirabilis had been the last thing a great many of his underlings had ever been reported doing.
Taking what very well may have ended up being his last breath, Hekkaring rang the door-chime and waited for the Twelfth Zoalord to appear and demand to know just what he intended to do. He could not possibly miss the fact that Hekkaring was in possession of a wheeled medical bed, or the fact that there were two Hyper Zoanoids with him. In fact, it was very likely that he would find out what the purpose of this visit was by scanning their minds, and that made it all the more likely that he would refuse to cooperate in the first place.
Ringing the chime once more, Hekkaring paused to allow Imakarum to come to his senses and allow them inside before he was forced to use drastic measures to retrieve the boy. Measures that were like as not going to end up getting him killed.
Growing impatient with waiting for nothing, Hekkaring overrode the lock and waited for it to open. Then he realized why Imakarum Mirabilis had not answered his summons: the man was not even in the room to hear it. Still, the child was tucked neatly into the elder Zoalord's bed, making this assignment so much the easier to complete.
Ordering the Hyper Zoanoids to retrieve the little Zoalord, Hekkaring watched as they gently moved him from the bed he'd originally been sleeping in onto the medical bed and wheeled the boy out into the corridor. Signaling for them to follow him, Hekkaring made for his private laboratory.
Only it, and that of Dr. Balkus himself, possessed the seniority to command a laboratory of their very own, and for something of this nature Hekkaring was glad to have it. Even though most of the work had already been done, there were some minor changes that would need to be made for the boy to become a full Zoalord. Still, the genetic reconstruction required to transform him would not be nearly as extensive as that which would be required to enable him to use Krumeggnik's Zoacrystal to its utmost potential. Hekkaring honestly wondered if anyone would bother.
XxXxX
)Kid- Ryan, what you were doing back there, were you actually… getting off on that?(
)Mom says my temper only has two settings: cold or violently sadistic,( he sent back, not really wanting to answer the question and hoping his "inner Zoanoid" would get the message.
)You want to talk?(
)Honestly? No.(
)Didn't think so,( Elegen seemed to sigh. )You seem to handle it pretty well, though. You haven't gone off on any of the others, anyway.(
)That's because none of the others are stupid enough to rile me up like that.(
)True, but maybe you have better self-control than you give yourself credit for, Ryan.(
)Yeah,( he sent, with all the sarcasm he could put into a single word. )I'm demonstrating a whole hell of a lot of self-control when I scald one of my fellow Guyvers, pin his hand to a hot stove burner, and threaten him with horrible but unspecified punishments.(
)To be fair, Ryan, he was making threats against your family,( Elegen sent. )You've always been something of a protector. That's the impression I've gotten from my end, anyway.(
He sighed, slumping back onto the couch and closing his eyes. It would have probably been less of a hassle to just head to his room and lie down on his bed, but for the moment he really didn't feel like moving. If Agito came in and tried to bug him – he didn't think it was too likely, but anything was possible – he might have second thoughts about that, but for now he was content to just lie on the couch and look at the far wall. He really hated losing control like that; it freaked other people out, and, hell, it tended to freak him out, too.
XxXxX
When Imakarum returned to his room, the first thing he saw was the empty bed. Rage bloomed in his chest, and he turned on his heel and hurried out of the room. There were only two people who were capable of doing this to his son, and he knew just where either would have gone in that case. Lord Hamilcal's personal laboratory was the only one specialized enough to handle the processing of Zoalords.
Kenji would be there. No matter if it was that rat Alfred Hekkaring who had taken him or Lord Hamilcal himself, his son would be in a processing-tank. He'd spoken with Lord Alkanphel, and while he still did not quite know quite what his Lord was so concerned about, he knew it involved Kenji in some way.
He'd also come to realize that Lord Alkanphel had some kind of plans for Kenji. He hadn't asked anything more about them other than if they were in place, knowing that his Lord would tell him when the time came for him to know.
Once he reached the laboratory, it didn't take him very long to find what he was looking for. Kenji was in one of the processing-tanks in the center of the laboratory. Standing before the nude, unconscious, all but helpless form of his son was that withered, despicable old man Alfred Hekkaring.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demanded, hurrying over to his son's side. Grabbing the shriveled old scientist by the collar, Imakarum hoisted him up and shook him like a dusty rag doll.
"If you would stop for a few moments and listen to reason, I could explain things to you," the insufferable man said arrogantly.
Grudgingly, still concerned for his son's safety but wanting to know just what Hekkaring thought he was doing, Imakarum set the human back on his feet. "Well then, human, speak quickly. What are you doing with my son?"
"I was given strict instructions by Dr. Balkus to have this boy developed into a full Zoalord." The man looked annoyed for a moment. "To be more precise, Dr. Balkus began the redevelopment of this boy, and then he left me here to tend to him. Claimed he had other business to attend to."
Hekkaring seemed to be talking more for his own benefit than that of anyone else, and Imakarum felt a slight flame of irritation. When he saw Kenji begin to involuntarily transform into his battleform, Imakarum turned immediately to look at what Hekkaring was doing. As he had suspected, the old scientist had indeed been the one to force his son to transform. Just as he was going to demand the reason for Hekkaring's actions, Lord Hamilcal strode into the laboratory.
"Is your work on the boy finished, Hekkaring?" Lord Hamilcal asked, giving a slight nod to acknowledge Imakarum himself.
"Yes," Hekkaring snapped. "All of the primary work on the boy's body has been completed. All you need to do is finalize it."
Without even a gesture of respect to his betters – something that infuriated Imakarum, but for some reason had no comparable effect on Lord Hamilcal – Hekkaring left the laboratory.
"What's going to happen to him now, Lord Hamilcal?"
"You'll find out soon enough, Imakarum," Lord Hamilcal said calmly, seeming to have already dismissed Imakarum from his thoughts.
Even as he was about to question Lord Hamilcal about his oblique dismissal, Lord Alkanphel strode into the room.
"Hamilcal, is it done?" Chronos' Supreme Overlord asked, his eyes drifting over Imakarum to rest on Kenji's slumbering form.
"Yes," Lord Hamilcal stated. "We only need to extract the dummy-crystal, insert the new one, and complete the reprocessing."
"Good," Lord Alkanphel said, smiling benevolently at Kenji as he laid his hand on the processing-tank that held him.
The tank was soon drained, and Kenji was laid out on one of the nearby operating tables. All the while Imakarum was left to wonder just what his Lord intended to do with his son.
-Relax, Masaki,- Lord Alkanphel said. -For the services he has done for Chronos this day, Kenji is to become a member of my Council.-
Imakarum was shocked into speechlessness by that pronouncement, and he watched dumbly as Lord Alkanphel gently caressed the side of Kenji's face. It was a momentous occasion, but it was like nothing he had ever expected.