Continuum of Destiny-1

[Guest]

Ok, so I'm a bit tired of waiting for Takaya to advance the plot. So this takes place just a bit after the Arizona and Rooftop battles finish. A little time has passed, and somehow Agito now has a bio war ship of his own. Let's just pretend that this is what Takaya's next few volumes lead up to.

Boost Armor Guyver: Continuum of Destiny

Part One

Alkanphel stand on the ledge. The wind blows around him, faintly wistling through the building. The mists of cloud gently blow above him. If he were higher, he might be able to reach out and touch them.

The humans crowd the streets below. They riot and scream at him, at the tower of Chronos itself. Well, not riot; but with they rage they send it may as well be. They scream at the injustice that Chronos has done to them, at the horrible monster attacks that the Chronos mutations has brought. The outcry of the humanitarian, the environmentalist, and the religious purist. Everyone against the advancment that Chronos has to offer. Everyone that has the risiculous suggesting that we are polluting nature with a perversion. As if a zoaform is anything perverse. As if a mere human is anything close to the natural form of the species. Alkanphel sneers.

The crowds below riot and scream; waiting for there Chronos lord to answer them. Fredrich is dead. The lord this land had been given too. Killed by the guyvers. Killed by the ones that fight to keep humanity as useless globs of flesh. The human branch manager is on the steps of the tower, trying to quell their screams with diplomacy. An admirable trait, to take matters into his own hands. Perhaps one day he might be made a usefull leader of zoa. The crowds still scream though, still demanding like spoiled brats that don't even know what they're demanding for.

Alkanphel raises his hand out, his fingers soaking in the energy of the air around him. His hand is raised unto the people below. He looks upon them, upon them with two eyes, and upon them with his third. His third eye glows, a faint glow above his normal two. His third eye is a crystal buried under the skin of his forhead; and it glows stronger with the intensity of his will. He can hear the screams below lessen. They know he is there. He steps off the ledge.

The power of his presence. His third eye crystal, his zoacrystal, is spreading to all of them. They fear him. Their screaming stops as terror fills every ounce of their being. In the air he floats, slowly lowering to them. In the air his hand is raised over all of them, over all of humanity.

This is enough, no longer will he wait for days of preparation. He closes his two eyes, and channels all of his will into his third. His hand is raised over the crowds below, over humanity, over the city streets and buildings below. He channels his will into his third eye.... into Barcus, into Amniculas, into Cablarl. Spread around the world, his will faintly touches each of the crystals they have. They obey, and add their will to his.

His third eye glows with blinding intensity, his hand spread over all of humanity. The Lords of the Zoa are linked, spread around the world to spread their power, each faintly touching eachother, but touching every simple man within his grasp. Alkanphel sends a single pure thought to all of them; a single command. "Become zoa", he says to them, "Become the true form".

He hovers above, the light from his crystal fading. They look upon his smooth face, and it is almost worship that they hold for him now. They want to touch him, embrace all of his angelic glory and purity. On his face, to himself his smile deepens. "I felt twelve", he says, "All will work as I destine". He rises in the air, as a gentle breeze, and fades higher into the blinding sun.

At first a single man is let past the line of Chronos gaurds. He walks up the steps to the branch manager and apologizes. Then asks to be made a zoa, to be as pure as Chronos wishes. As second man is let past, and asks the same. A third, then the branch manager halts the crowd, "Please, wait your turn, we have enough processing tanks for everyone!"

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Mitsuki screams, "I have to go! Let me go to them!"

Tetsuo and Sho hold her back, wrestling to keep her from running to the door. "Mitsuki, you'll be caught if you go to the city!", Tetsuo says to her, "Just calm down, please"

"I want to be caught, I don't care anymore", she struggles.

"But they'll torture you", Sho says, "they'll turn you into a monster". The tv behind them shows the news, people lineing up at the cloud gate tower. Just minute before it was the riot, what seemed to be a great victory for the rebellion, that so many people would oppose what Chronos had planned for them. Hope had filled their hearts when the camera has shown the Segawa's in the back of the crowd, the parents of Mitsuki and Tetsuo. Hope had filled them until Alkanphel descended, and the lines began. "Mitsuki, we can save them", Sho says, "But they'll turn you into a zoanoid if you go now!"

"I Want to be a Zoanoid!", she screams, "Let me Go! I want to be a Zoanoid!"

Sho turns white. His heart stops and he drops to the floor. He his white as the shock of what she said fill into him, not believing what she just said. Her struggles have broken free, and Tetsuo joins him on the ground. "No, come back", Tetsuo reaches after her.

Aptom runs across the room, meeting her at the door he slams it shut again and grabs her by the arms. "Let go of me!", she screams. Tears run down her face, "Let go of me, please!"

"I can't do that", Aptom says. He wraps his arms around her, and lowers his lips to her ear, "You have no idea what you are saying, no idea what it's really like to be a zoanoid. We can't let you do this".

Tetsuo and Sho are on their feet. "How could this happen to her", Sho stutters, "How could they brainwash even Mitsuki?!" The tears down Mitsuki's face are mirrored in his own. The pain he feals is just as strong as hers.

"I don't know", Tetsuo says, "But we better tie her up until we can figure out how to undo the damage".

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Shizu lays on the floor, the others gathered around her. They were all making plans when her crystal started glowing, when she arched back, the overwhelming sensation running through her. It had lasted only minutes, then she fell to the floor, a trickle of blood seeping from her nose.

"Are you all right?", one of her soldiers asks her. "Should we put you into a processing tank?"

She touches a hand to her forhead; the glowing gone, and her zoacrystal hidden again under skin. "I'm fine", she says to them, barly sure of it herself. One of them hands her a cloth, and she dabs the blood from her nose.

"What just happened?", Dr. Yamamura asks. He makes his way through the men, and kneels at her side, "Is it the zoacrystal? I can't believe it would overload like that. My design for it is flawless". He takes the cloth from her, and with the clean side he wipes the beeds of sweat from her temples.

"I'll be alright", she says. "Just help me to my feet".

"No. Rest here for a moment, then we'll help you to a bed". Yamamura's face is stern and serious. "Tell me Shizu, what exactly happened just now?"

Her headache is subsiding. The cool Alaskan air breezes through the warehouse. With her mind clearing she begins to feal the wides openess of it. The creaking wooden walls, the Libertus zoanoid tanks. Everything that Agito had arranged. They were planning about him, about how to get Agito back when her crystal begain glowing. "I felt something... ", she says. "It was some sort of presence... like another zoalord. It was strong though, stronger than Barcus, or anything else I've ever felt". She raises her hand to temple again, remembering the pain almost brings the pounding of the headache back. "I tried to resist it, but I couldn't. It just kept coming. It felt like a dam bursting in my head, letting all the water out".

"I see", Dr. Yamamura says. "I was afraid something like this could happen".

"What?", she asks.

"I tried to make you as strong a telepath as I could", the doctor stands and turns away for his table. "I thought I could wire you with enough force of will to overide any other zoalord Chronos has to offer". He fingers through the papers on his table, through the sketches of what happened at Arizona. "My only fear was that it might not be strong enough to face Alkanphel".

"Alkanphel?!", one of the men shrieks, "Here?!"

"No", Shizu says, "I would have felt him of he were this close". Slowly one of them extends his arm to her, helping her up. "But what happened doctor, why would he come after me like that?"

Doctor Yamamura fingers past the sketches of Arizona, and to a file buried underneath. "He wasn't after you Shizu. Not you in particular anyway". He pulls the file from the pile for all to see. "I've been taking samples of the water from the pipes. It's important that I screen it for impurities, so that the processing tanks have a perfect chemical mix". He flips the pages to a chart that none of them can understand. "When I was screening the water I noticed a chemical additave, something that Chronos must have been pumping into it at the public water treatment plant. They run the world, they can pump anything they want into it".

"Their poisoning everyone?!"

"Maybe", he says. "It's been some time since Chronos took over the world. Since then, they've simply tried to convince people to become zoanoids. They've tried to make the idea popular. Other than that, they havn't really done much else. Nothing anyone would notice anyway".

"What does poisoning the water have to do with anything", Shizu asks.

"Zoanoids are genetically designed to be telepathically controlled by zoanoids", he says. "But as much as a zoalord tries, the most he can ever do to a human is invoke a strong sense of fear or terror. The power of presence". He slaps the file to the ground, a strange sense of fury building in him. A sense of humiliation in the scientist that only he can understand, yet at the same time a sense of compassion for humanity. "A human isn't normally suseptable to a zoalord's telepathy, but if you were to add the right drugs into the blood stream, you might slowly be able to change that".

"My god.... ", Shizu gasps. "They've been slowly turning everyone into zoanoids just by drinking the water"

"Not quite", the doctor interupts, "Just telepathically suseptable. After I figured out what they were doing to 'our' water, I thought they might simply be trying to go after us in the resistance. Since I'm the only human here, I filtered it out of my own water".

The look of concern on Shizu's face grows, "And everyone else?"

"Alkanphel must have used all the zoalords around the world to help transmit his signal. He must have used all of you like a giant antenae network. If that's the case, then almost everyone around the world must be infected".

The room is silent. The chill of the Alaskan wind can be heard outside as the snow blows is the empty fields. Every face of the Zues Thunderbolt Resistance is pale. With every human under control of Chronos, the anti-Chronos zoanoids might have no chance. No chance except to slaughter every human they've been fighting to free.

"What about master Agito?", one of the men asks. "He wasn't processed into a zoanoid like us. He's not a zoalord either. He's a guyver, but he's still got a human half to him".

"Yeah", another member asks, "Are the Guyvers immune to this?"

Yamamura uses his hands to lower their concerns, "A Guyver has always been immune to zoalord telepathy before. I'm very sure both of the guyvers are still immune now". He turns back to the pile of paper on his table. "In all honesty, I'd be more concerned about the other resistance members in Japan. Most of them are human. They're probebly reporting to a zoalord by now".

Shizu gasps, the look of horror over her freinds.

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The initial boom has long since past. The shocking pops of air shattering glass ended when the waves over the ocean began. The salted air streaks past her as she speeds in flight toward Japan, toward her freinds. Natsuki, Mitsuki, Tetsuo, all in grave danger as they're suseptable to the enemy zoalords. Her personal power as a zoalord, the streangths that she specializes are control, and healing. Flight was never thought that important, and so she can feel her energy wanning. Onuma runs through her head; her grandfather, and how he died at the hands of Chronos. Someone close to her heart dead already, and the others close to her at risk. Be damned, even if her wanning streangth begins eating her flesh away, she flies at sonic speed over the ocean.

How long has she been flying? An hour? Two? Time grew into a blur after what must have been fifteen minutes. Her focus blurs everything but her need to help them.

The glimmer of light ahead of her. With the twinkle of it on the dark horizon Shizu is filled with new hope, and new bursting energies. Her streak through the air brings her closer to the lights, almost flying into them before they widen across the island, widening to embrace her as the lights of cities and towns to both her left and right. In a matter of hours she has flown to be embraced again by the lights of the islands of Japan.

The strain has lessened now, no longer flying at super sonic speeds. Almost like exausted muscles, she feels the desire to rest, to lower to the ground for just a bit. 'No', she tells herself, 'Not while they need me'. She keeps hovering over the forest like tree tops, searching for the mansion that her freinds are hiding in. Slowly it comes into view, and she approaches.

The crack of the door is open, and Shizu can see Mitsuki bound to the chair. Desparate struggles of sweat on Mitsuki's face are mirrored in the tears of pain on Sho's. "How can I fight this?!", he cries out. "I can tear apart monster after monster, and kill anyone that threatens to turn my freinds into one. But how can I save my freinds and loved ones when they Want to be violated?!"

The slap is something Shizu never expected. Aptom stands in the corner of the room, taken aback himself. Sho is left on the floor, and Tetsuo stands over him. "If you give up now Sho, I lose my sister", Tetsuo says.

"I don't want to give up Tetsuo", Sho wimpers, "But I couldn't save Murikami from going over to Chronos, how can I save Mitsuki". The tears fill his eyes, like a flood forming. The pain in his heart spreads to his hands, letting them shake as his voice chokes and trembles. "I love her"

"There's nothing we can do", Aptom says. "We couldn't save Murikami from being brainwashed to become Imakarum, and we can't do anything to save Mitsuki". Aptom walks out of the corner and towards the girl in the chair, "The only difference between Murikami and Mitsuki is that she'll at least be easier to kill".

"Don't you dare!", Sho screams out! Fury rages in his eyes, and like a mailstrom he places himself in Aptom's way! "Don't you dare hurt her, I will fight you with everything I have if you so much as touch her".

Aptom is pressed back by Sho's fists, his leather jacket gripped firmly in them. "How long can we keep her tied up?", Aptom asks. "How long before she escapes to Cloud gate, or another zoanoid processing facility? Once she does, they'll get her to tell them everything about us. I don't know if that's worse, or having to try and fight her after she becomes a zoanoid. Hell knows that fighting Imakarum's bad enough".

"I can't let you kill my sister", Tetsuo says. "she's all I have left". The desperation in Tetsuo's eyes matches the fury and determination in Sho's. The heart of the brother and lover.

The door slides open, and Shizu says, "I may be able to cure her". They look at her, in her human form again as she steps through the doorway.

"Shizu?", Tetsuo says.

She steps towards the chair; and a ray of hope opens in Mitsuki's eyes. "Shizu?", Mitsuki says. "Shizu, I've missed you so much. Please help me Shizu. They won't let me do what I need to Shizu, they won't. But you can help me, I trust you Shizu. Please, help me!" She looks down into Mitsuki's desparate eyes. Guilt flashes across her face, guilt over the instant love and devotion that Mitsuki is showing.

"Don't do it Shizu", Sho says. "If you and Agito can help break her from this brainwashing, then please help. But we can't let her escape".

"Agito is gone", she says. "The help I'm giving comes from me. From what I am now". Looking down on Mitsuki, she gazes with gentle, tender eyes. For a moment the crystal of her third eye glows... revealing herself to them. "Agito did this to me. He gave all of us in the resistance a zoaform to fight the zoanoids of Chronos. I am the single zoalord to challenge the zoalords of Chronos".

"a... A zoalord?", Aptom says.

"Then you can help us!", Sho says, "You can help us figure out how Chronos managed to brainwash all the people! Help figure out how we can save Mitsuki!"

She touches her hand to Mitsuki's cheek. "There is nothing to figure out, I already know". Her third eye crystal glows again, this time glowing with purpose. The glow carries the warmth of her mind, the compassion, the love that she feels for her sister and freind. Her hand brushes across Mitsuki's cheek, and her light across Mitsuki's soul. Her message is simple, 'be free Mitsuki. be what you truly are, and nothing else'. Embraced in the light of Shizu, Mitsuki's heart flutters. The light fades, and all is silent.

" ...is she... ?"

Mitsuki has all but collapsed in the chair. Her face hidden as she faces down. A whimper is all they hear. She looks up to them, and the tears of sorrow can be seen in her eye. Sho rushes to her, wrapping his arms around her. "Thank you", he says, "Thank you for bringing her back to us".

"Aptom", how did you do that?", Aptom asks, "How did you know 'to' do that?"

"Because I helped brainwash all the humans in Alaska", Shizu says. "Agito had Dr. Yamamura process me into a zoalord to control his rebel zoanoids. But after Chronos tainted the Earth's water supply, Alkanphel used all the zoalords, including me, to brainwash every tainted human within reach".

"Tainted the water supply?", Aptom says. "Then, they've found a way to turn every human against us. They don't have to wait for people to 'be convinced' to become a zoanoid anymore. They can just give them a telepathic command".

"But what about Tetsuo?", Shizu asks, "Why aren't you affected?"

The look at him, waiting for an answer. "Um... I don't really drink that much water. I'm mostly a coke and chips kind of guy. If Chronos really has been tainting the water supply, the effect must be accumulative. Every drop brings a person just a little closer to being under a zoalord's telepathic control. I must not have enough in my system yet. Like I said, too many sodas".

"Ah... ", Aptom says. "So I guess being a fat geek pays off after all".

"Hey!" They all laugh. Even Mitsuki, as a relief in Sho's arms. Tetsuo grimaces over the joke at his expence, but takes it in stride, even smiling himself. "There's so many questions that need answering now. Where's Agito? What's he doing? How do we save everyone from Chronos' mind control? Can you use your zoalord power to reverse the damage Chronos has done?"

Sho has already begun ripping the duct tape from the chair. "One question at a time", Mitsuki says, "Give her that much room at least big brother".

"No, I can't save everyone all at once. Alkanphel was too strong. I can only undo his command one person at a time", Shizu tells them. Her look snaps back with realization, "but... where's Natsuki?"

"She went into the city with Hayami a few hours ago for groceries", Aptom says. Suddenly his eyes snap. Across the room everyone shares the same expression.

====================================

With his human face, Aptom smiles his evil smile. He is at the mouth of the alley, looking at the herd of people lined like cattle before Clouds Gate.

His hatred makes him want to hunt. To hunt every enemy of Chronos. He doesn't care who gets in his way. He doesn't care even if it's Chronos itself. The single burning thought in his head. The desire, the instinct; to kill all that oppose Chronos. A secret desire burns even stronger though. To kill or absorb any part of Aptom that is not a part of him. Evil, Chaos Aptom burns hotter with that drive. Any shread of himself not touching the orb in his head must be destroyed. One scrap of himself has already escaped; escaped and regained it's free will.

The hatred and fear seeths in his hungry teeth. But now a new prey is before him. Natsuki. Yes, he remembers her. She was with the guyvers before, and now is in line with the herd for Cloud gate. He smiles his evil, human faced smile, and steps from the mouth of the alley. Evil Aptom remembers her, and so will free Aptom. With a hand that should almost be clawed, he grabs her by the shoulder. Yes, he will come for her. She will make excellent bait.

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That's it for the first installment of this fic. If I have time next weekend I'll write the next.