A Gregole jumped in to intercept him and ended up getting its head blasted through with the Pressure Cannon for its trouble. That seemed to be the catalyst for all of the other Zoanoids in the area to come down on him, so Ryan extended both sets of Vibration Blades and sliced all of those coming his way into bloody confetti. When he had enough breathing room to use the Pressure Cannon again, Ryan did it without hesitation.
The blast of the Guyver's most powerful gravity-based weapon – that is, if you didn't count the gravity-enhanced flying kicks that Ryan would often use when he had the airspace – cleared a substantial corridor in the Zoanoids that were trying to attack him. Ryan proceeded to run straight through it, all the while slicing and dicing any Zoanoid stupid enough to try and stop him.
)You know, kid, we could always try to use that new armor we got from that weird, buried spaceship.(
)By "we" you mean me, right?( Ryan sent, his mental tone mildly amused. )I guess we could try using that thing. Still, where are we gonna get the horses I'm going to need to eat after I bust us outta here? You know that thing sucks me drier than a bone.(
)Yeah, but better bone-dry and alive than flat on your back and cut open by Dr. Sadist again, eh? Besides, you could always get that hot momma of yours to make you one of those delicious chicken pies of hers.(
)You did not just call my Mom hot.(
)What? I may not have much of a body anymore, but that doesn't mean I'm dead. Sheesh, kid.(
)If you had a face I'd slap you right now, Jimmy James.(
)Funny, kid. Real funny. I guess that makes you Dave?(
The Zoanoid leaping out at him—one of those damn Enzyme IIs—distracted Ryan from coming up with a particularly crushing retort. Firing the Pressure Cannon at the Guyver-killer's buggy head, Ryan dodged the brief spray of acid that came out of the thing's neck. Two cricket-like Zoanoids – whether they were Galma or Razell he didn't really care – met their untimely and overly messy deaths as the ends of his Vibration Blades.
"Giga! Modify!"
)I was in an Iron Man sorta mood just then; sue me,( Ryan sent, in response to Elegen's burst of mental laughter.
Feeling the full-body numbness that he'd learned proceeded the activation of the Giga unit, Ryan quickly time-shifted, and before the cameras – or the Zoanoids – could catch more than a quick glimpse of his new body, Ryan ran down the halls. The time-frozen forms of Zoanoids in attack positions, or those that had been running to the aid of their fellow freaks, were still weird to him. Even after all the drastically bizarre things that had happened to him, this was still the strangest thing he'd seen. But now wasn't the time to think about things like that. Now it was time to get the hell out of this Chronos deathtrap so he could go back to the safehouse and eat. And then preferably sleep.
)You're swearing in Spanish, kid. I didn't even know you spoke Spanish.(
)There are still some things even you don't know about me, eh Snake-head?(
)I guess so. When did you find the time to learn that language?(
)I had some relatives from California visiting—cousins, mostly. One of them decided to teach me some Spanish, just in case I ever decided I want to live there. Fat chance of that; that place is just way too hot for my tastes.(
)Given where you grew up, I'm not surprised.(
With nothing else to say to his "inner Zoanoid", Ryan settled back onto his bed and just stared at the wall of the room he'd come to call his own. He'd just finished stuffing his face with pie—not really as good as the kind his mom made, but then, nothing really compared to that. He'd just started to get used to the fact that whenever he used the Giga for anything like that escape he'd just pulled off from Chronos and Dr. Butt-kiss in particular, he'd have to have access to something like a four-course feast just to be able to recoup the energy he lost.
Not that something like that was going to stop him the next time he needed to use it to get the hell out of Dodge. It was just nice to know what he needed to do.
Now that he was back in his bed, though, all he wanted to do was lounge around and probably take a nap. It was probably the tryptophan from all the meat he'd eaten that was knocking him out; he'd heard that stuff could knock you right out when you'd eaten as much as he had. It'd be nice to finally get some sleep, though, and now that he was back on safe ground that was just what he was going to do.
XxXxX
The next day, when he woke up, the first thing Zektor noticed was that the Galma who'd been banging on his door had left. Either he'd finally gone away, or he'd been hauled off by security some time during the night. He'd have to thank the girls if it was the latter, since he hadn't been in the mood to deal with some puny Standard Zoanoid just after he'd gotten up, especially when that particular Standard Zoanoid was going to be all pissy for no good reason.
As Zektor hauled himself up and out of bed, he knew that today was the day he'd have to go and meet the boss, their new Overlord. He just hoped that the guy was the reasonable type; there was really no telling with these Zoalords. Zektor wouldn't mind working for someone like Dr. Balkus, Lord Amniculus, or Lord Purg'stall, since those guys were more likely to berate their guys for screwing up than blow up their skulls.
Not that Zektor was worried so much about his own skin in this case, since he was a Hyper Zoanoid and hence pretty much irreplaceable, but some of the Standard Zoanoids – admittedly not a lot of them – were kind of friendly. It'd be a shame to see some of the good ones get themselves killed. Though he wouldn't mind if that Galma got his skull blown up for something. Not that he was feeling vindictive or anything.
Enough stalling. It's time to go meet and greet the new Overlord for this place. I certainly hope he's a morning person, otherwise this ain't gonna be pleasant. With that still in mind, Zektor dressed up in a clean uniform, tossed his old one in the hamper for the janitorial staff to take care of later, and walked out of the room. Lord Mirabilis' office was the same as the old Overlord's, at least as long as he didn't decide to relocate.
Zektor didn't know if that was likely or not, but he knew that he and his fellow Hyper Zoanoids would be called in to assist with the moving if it did. Zektor did hope that he wouldn't have to do anything like that today, but then again that wasn't really his choice to make. He was just here to do his job. Walking into Lord Mirabilis' office, Zektor was surprised to find that the office itself was empty. With Lord Mirabilis' nowhere to be found, Zektor and the other members of Team Five, who Zektor now noticed had come in just behind him, were rather abruptly at loose ends.
"Wait here, guys. I'll go see if I can find him anywhere. Lord Mirabilis might just be busy with something else."
The others nodded, continuing to stand at attention inside Lord Mirabilis' office. Zektor nodded back as he left, heading for the Zoalord's room. That was the first place he intended to look, even though it was pretty unlikely that their new Overlord was still there. As he reached the door and pushed it open, Zektor's eyes took only a few seconds to adjust to the lack of light. What he saw surprised him, so he flipped on the light, wanting to make sure that what he was seeing was really real and not some trick of his sometimes-overactive imagination. But no, he was really there; in fact, when the lights had come on, Lord Mirabilis had shifted in his bed and pulled the covers up over his head. Taking a deep breath, since what he was about to have to do freaked the holy hell right out of him, Zektor quickly crossed the remaining distance between the door and Lord Mirabilis' bed, touched the Ninth Zoalord on the shoulder, and gently shook him.