Imakarum, sitting by himself in the room that he had once shared with Kenji – a boy who now no longer existed in any real sense – brooded. Ingriam was probably fitting in well with the personnel of the Genesis Tower—at least those who were not subordinate to him. He would probably do well to put Ingriam out of his mind.

Still, it was hard; Kenji had been with him for so long. They had confided things to one another that no one else – save Lord Alkanphel, of course – was privileged to know, and Imakarum couldn't help but miss Kenji's constant presence by his side. Still, the fact remained that Ingriam Mirabilis was not Kenji. Kenji was just a child; he needed his father to guide, love, and protect him. Ingriam was the Ninth Zoalord of Chronos; he was strong enough to stand on his own and did not need ties of family or affection to hold him back. Few Zoalords could afford such things.

In fact, Imakarum knew that none of the other Chronos Overlords had any family: either the passage of time had caught up to them, or the Zoalord in question had never started one in the first place. He was the only one who had any real children, though arguably every Zoalord was a child of Lord Alkanphel. Still, Imakarum was the only Zoalord in Chronos to have a child of his own blood who was still alive.

That made it all the harder for him to cut his ties with- with Ingriam and let his son make a place for himself within Chronos. It was a father's first instinct to protect his children, and Imakarum's was all the more powerful for the fact that he only had one child. If something happened… but that really wasn't likely. Ingriam would be well protected by the Zoanoids stationed at the Genesis Tower. It was, after all, the duty of every Zoanoid stationed there to make sure that their commanding Overlord was kept safe.

And Team Five was with him, adding further protection to that given by the thousands of Zoanoids and other personnel that staffed the Genesis Tower. He was probably just worrying unreasonably, the way he always tended to do when it came to his son's welfare. Imakarum knew that he would have to break himself of that habit if he was ever to work effectively with Chronos' new Ninth Zoalord. It would be hard, this new task that Imakarum had set for himself, but for his own sake and that of his son, he would find a way to do it.

XxXxX

He'd felt it when Luggnagg died. Kaburaal had probably felt it as well, and now Jearvill was wondering just what they were going to do about his killer. He had never expected that Imakarum's brat would have been able to kill one of the Overlords of Chronos, and now, just to make things all the more unusual, the brat had become one of the Overlords himself. Hiyern had at least thought that the brat would have been executed. Still, it was now patently obvious that Lord Alkanphel favored the little Zoalord. None of the other Overlords would have been granted such a reprieve after killing one of their own.

Seeing Luggnagg's throat torn open like that, and the bloody Zoacrystal that had once been implanted in his friend's head clenched in the claws of that—that little half-orphan whelp, had not been something that Jearvill had ever been prepared for. Kaburaal would doubtless agree that something needed to be done about the brat—something along the lines of killing him, perhaps. It would be rather difficult to deal with the child, given the fact that Imakarum and Alkanphel both had a great deal of affection for him. Then again, that would just make it all the more gratifying when they were able to collect the brat's cold, stiff corpse.

It would be somewhat difficult to find a new scapegoat, making the loss of the late Commander all the more irksome. That man, with his ill-concealed ambitions and complete lack of self-preservation instinct, had made a perfect distraction for the once-trio. Their own ambitions were much more long-term and a great deal better concealed from the ever-watchful presence of Lord Alkanphel.

That Luggnagg, who had been the one to plan most of what they wanted to do with their newfound power, had been the one killed by a boy whose mind was not yet old enough to truly comprehend just what kind of power he had at his disposal rankled. Still, at times Luggnagg could be as rash as Gyou. Those times had been limited to when he thought that every element of the situation in question could be made to work in his favor.

The fact that he had been alone with Fried'rich van Purg'stall, one of the most loyal of Alkanphel's loyalist followers – someone who would have to be eliminated in any case – had obviously proved to be too much of a temptation for him. The presence of Imakarum's brat may or may not have influenced Luggnagg's decision, but it was still a moot point, since the boy was going to die anyway, as soon as a method of execution was found that would not immediately – or, preferably ever – implicate either Kaburaal or himself in the process.

XxXxX

It was a strange situation, but then Chronos had always been a strange organization, and Dr. Jessica Ash had gotten used to it by now. She and all her fellow scientists – researchers, development technicians, gene-grafters and -splicers, and even the field biologists that Chronos Africa employed – had been called back from their assignments and sent up to the large main meeting rooms. Not all of them at once, of course, both since all of them had jobs of their own to take care of within Chronos' Africa Section and because there was simply no way to fit all of them in a room that size at once. Instead, small to middle-sized groups of scientists and techs had been called up throughout the day. Now it was her turn.

Dr. Ash had been hearing rumors that the present Overlord of this Section, one Luggnagg De Krumeggnik, had been displaced—by a new Zoalord, no less. That was odd, since Dr. Ash hadn't heard any reports that a new Zoalord had been developed.

The candidate selection alone would have been the subject of a great deal of speculation, and this base had the same well-established grapevine/gossip chain as any Chronos base that had been in operation as long as the Genesis Tower had. There had been nothing, aside from the usual day-to-day things: who was making the most progress on their current project, which animal or insect forms could be used to develop the strongest types of new Zoanoids, which of them might possibly be up for a promotion next.

Taking care to organize her research notes, in case whoever wanted to speak with her asked what project she was working on, Dr. Ash turned as she heard someone speaking about the Overlord of this place.

"What was that you were talking about?" she asked, making her way up to a knot of lower-level genetic researchers who were speaking in low tones.

"Hello, Dr. Ash," Dr. Alonzo Calvari greeted her, ducking his head respectfully, as well he might: Dr. Ash was three grades above him.

Also, Dr. Calvari was more interested in the theories involved with genetic engineering rather than the application. He would probably have been more content at the Antarctica Research Station if they could have been convinced to take on a low-level genetic researcher like him. Calvari would either have to work his way up to the grade where he was eligible to ask for a transfer, or he would have to learn to deal with the realities of working in the Genesis Tower's labs. Dr. Ash wasn't particularly concerned with what route Dr. Calvari would choose, but for now the man had information that she was interested in.

"Dr. Calvari," she acknowledged. "What was that you were saying? Something about a new Overlord here?" She raised an eyebrow, waiting for Calvari to answer her question.

"I've met him," Calvari said, an expression of perplexed curiosity on his face. "He's… well, he's kind of strange. Even for an Overlord. He seems to be taking most of his cues from the leader of that Hyper Zoanoid Team Five—you know, the one that was developed in Arizona?"

Dr. Ash nodded to indicate her comprehension. The Hyper Zoanoid Team Five was very well known to the upper echelons of which Dr. Ash was working to make herself a part. They had originally been merely a team of elite Hyper Zoanoid soldiers: the original five had not even had the same human forms as these new iterations. This variant of Team Five had been developed to combat a rogue Proto-Zoalord that had been making trouble for Chronos in that area.

The Proto-Zoalord had, in fact, been one of the ones used to finalize the development of the late Commander Gyou's own Zoalord form. Dr. Ash hadn't been able to learn anything more about the Proto-Zoalord in question, whether he was dead or had been dealt with in some other manner, so for the time being she focused on her work. The processing of Sleeper Units took a great deal of concentration, after all.

"I know of them," Dr. Ash confirmed.