Zoalords
Chapter 2
Dr. Shirai Kobashi
Even among the CHRONOS troops, Dr. Shirai's appearance elicited stares. 5'2" of flesh and metal. His left eye was a mechanical implant, his left arm and most of his skull had been replaced with prosthetics. He looked very much like a Borg. He didn't notice the stares, he was lost in his work.
Dr. Shirai Kobashi was the stereotypical mad scientist. As long as he was busy with his work, nothing else mattered. If the Guyver were to walk in and start shooting he'd likely tell him to keep it down, he was working. Like most who had served under the traitor Guyot, Shirai was not an evil man, just frightened and eccentric. Since sustaining his injuries, the doctor had become less frightened and more eccentric.
All that mattered was the work.
Dr. Angela Nighthawk found him difficult to work with. He had no interest beyond his immediate work, and would often ignore other researchers suggestions and inquiries. She believed that he honestly did not acknowledge their existence. Still, he was a brilliant man, and she could see why Guyot had chosen him for the work.
At times during Guyot's research, a certain Galvak had been present, hidden from view, watching, learning. Stealing information from the computers in the rare instances when both men were out of the room, (Shirai was so wrapped up in his work that he rarely slept). He'd even taken a small genetic sample.
That was the most frustrating thing.
They had the key, they just didn't have the door. As with the Guyver Units themselves, they had a wealth of information about the Unit Remover, they simply lacked the technological ability to replicate it. They had grown the Pods and The Ark from pieces of the living Relic, but it's contents had proven, thus far, beyond their abilities. But, she was certain that they find a breakthrough.
She could only hope that it would come in time.
Dr. Nighthawk personally favored a Grimmel-like approach to a hypothetical Unit Remover based Zoanoid. A Bioblaster with multiple blaster units emitting whatever frequency was needed to deactivate the armor. But still she had questions.
What would they do if they did produce a Unit Remover based Zoanoid? Would they then kill the ex-Guyver? What would they do with the symbiote itself? Who would wear it? And to what end?
She had no desire to see anyone die. She sympathized with Sho and agreed with Lord Czyvek that he should be spared. She didn't want to see Agito dead, either, even if he was evil. She knew that there would be no reprieve for Makishima Agito, the official orders were clear that he be killed. Lord Czyvek was doing his best to protect Sho and his friends, but she knew that higher-ranking Zoalords likely saw him as a threat. She found herself wishing, not for the first time, that the Guyver Units had never been stolen in the first place. So much suffering could have been avoided.
So strange, so cruel is life. A boy decides to walk through the forest on his way home from school and finds himself bonded to an alien symbiote and hunted by madmen and monsters.
"Dr. Shirai?"
The scientist was examining a three-dimensional amplification of the Unit Remover DNA. He didn't respond.
"Dr. Shirai?" Still no response. Dr. Nighthawk lay her hand upon the scientist's shoulder.
"Remarkable. Do you suppose it originated on The Creator's home world, or another experimental ecosystem such as ours?"
"I have no way of knowing. We have nothing of The Creator's that can substantiate that they are even a single race, much less the origins of their creations."
"But we can speculate upon the type of environment in which those creations evolved by studying specific adaptations . . ." Shirai began.
"From beings who are eons ahead of us in terms of genetic engineering? They likely adapt new bio-technology to suit each new world."
"Perhaps. But I would still like to know what sort of creatures these Creators are."
"Lord Czyvek fears that, should they return, they would attempt to enslave or destroy us."
"People always fear the unknown." The elderly scientist pointed out.
Dr. Nighthawk shook her head, this wasn't what she had wanted to discuss at all. "Dr. Shirai, I wanted your opinion on our design concept for the Unit Remover Type Zoanoid." She handed him a chart depicting what appeared to be a standard Grimmel with additional blasters built onto each arm and two on the back.
"Yes, yes. It's fine." He went back to examining the DNA. "But you should develop a model with flight capability. You don't want the Units to simply fly away."
Later:
"I was thinking, Angela," Mikhail Czyvek looked up over his meal at the woman across the small restaurant table, "Maybe I should have my Telepathic Inhibitor removed. As a Zoalord it is extremely difficult to keep track of my people without telepathy." Dr. Angela Nighthawk smiled, "People have managed to do a great deal without telepathy, Mikhail. Still, I understand that it would help to protect the Zoanoids if you knew when they were in trouble." "Yes. As much as I enjoy being able to hide my thoughts, I need to know what's happening as it happens. When Aptom," He spoke the name as a curse, "Was alive, I had to rely on other Zoalords to find him, even though he was attacking people left and right. It is something I must do."
Dr. Nighthawk shuddered at the mention of Aptom, she had been there, at Cloud Gate, when the mad Zoanoid had nearly destroyed the entire complex. She had lost many friends that day, and Lord Czyvek, Mikhail, had almost died fighting him.
"I will have to look over the diagnostics, see if it is removable. Then, if we can, and you wish, we can have it removed." She shook her head, "This is hardly dinner conversation," She chided, "We agreed to leave work back at the labs." Czyvek smiled, "So we did." He took her brown hand in his. "So we did."
To be continued . . .
Notes:
Should it be Shirai Kobashi or Kobashi Shirai in the Japanese way of presenting names? I'm not sure which is the family name and which is the proper name.