Beast vs. King
By CyberXIII
I don't own Evangelion, nor do I own the King who will be unnamed until the end of the chapter.
The Japanese-owned submarine, the Kobayashi-Maru, made no noise as it cut through the ocean depths. Nuclear-powered subs were uncommon in the post-Second Impact world, but not unheard of. Mostly, they were replaced by the new plasma-powered variants, which were slightly cheaper. Many ships had been changed to these new "clean" power sources, but this vessel had not yet been outfitted with the new equipment.
Had they made the switch, many lives may have been spared.
The captain of this particular vessel, a stubborn bull of a man named Akira, stood at the helm of his vessel, trying not to look panicked. His crew most definitely wouldn't benefit from that…and it was bad enough they were being sent on a suicide mission to begin with….
Three days prior, a tremendous explosion had been detected in the Pacific by satellites, not too far from Japan, on Oshima Island. The country's leaders had immediately assumed that someone was testing a new weapon, and had fallen to bickering over who had been doing so close to a country that had been already ravaged once by giant monsters. Only a few officials knew exactly what was on Oshima Island and what had caused that explosion. Said officials immediately cut their losses and made travel arrangements.
No one had owned up, so an investigation to the actual site was necessary. NERV had initially volunteered, but as there was no definite proof of Angelic mischief the UN had sent a military-owned vessel instead.
The venerable submarine surfaced as it sailed closer to the island in question, a place called Oshima Island. As the ship came closer, the crew members above deck could plainly see that the island was devastated. The once beautiful island had already suffered through the chaos of Second Impact, where intense flooding had wiped out much of the population, plants, and wildlife. The few remaining inhabitants had been mainly volcanologists studying Mt. Mihara.
Now, however, the island was nothing more than a charred, blackened clump of jagged volcanic rock sticking out of the ocean. The volcanologist's installation had been completely wiped out. The only real feature on the island was the still smoking, active volcano at its highest point. Indeed, the volcano was starting to erupt, and from the looks of things this eruption was going to be a powerful one.
Captain Akira immediately barked orders.
"All hands on deck! Keep the ship at a distance so we aren't hit by lava bombs!"
The crewmen scrambled to their positions as the volcano started spewing lava and smoke. The evening sky was soon blotted out by an inky black cloud of ash.
The captain sighed in relief, and looked in the direction of the volcano. The ship was safe from any lava bombs, and the lava would only form new rock on the ruined island's coast….
But what was that other sound?
The eruption was causing a tremendous amount of noise, of course, but there was something else. Something…primal, animalistic.
A roar.
This roaring sounded like a great, vicious beast that had lived millions of years ago…and then had come back to life to ravage Tokyo.
The Captain shouted for a pair of binoculars. An aide immediately ran up to him and handed the item to him.
Akira peered through the lenses and looked closely at the flaming mountain. As he focused on the crater, he saw something moving. He looked harder and finally saw what looked like a head rising out of the volcano. He gasped.
"It can't be…"
The saurian head opened a mouth full of sharp fangs and roared again. The head was soon followed by a thick neck, a bulky torso, and powerful arms as the monster seized the crater rim and pulled itself out of the volcano. The creature was covered in rapidly cooling volcanic rock that soon crumbled and broke apart as the monster climbed out of the crater like a demon crawling out of hell.
The monster's head was reptilian in nature, but it more closely resembled that of a tyrannosaur. As it climbed out, the captain could see that it had three rows of maple-leaf shaped spines running down its back. The middle row was the largest, with the one between its shoulders being the biggest of those.
The monster's muscular legs came into view next as it placed a foot on the rim and heaved the rest of its charcoal-colored, scaly bulk out of Mt. Mihara.
Illuminated by the crimson light and flames behind him, covered in volcanic rock and ash, the King of the Monsters threw back his head and roared into the blood-red skies.
Several men fainted dead away in shock at the sight. A few of them actually lost control of their bladders for a moment. Godzilla advanced down the mountain, moving quickly despite its size. Within a few short moments the monster made it down the mountain and jumped into the ocean. The ship was buffeted by massive waves and the entire crew was caught off guard. Several people fell overboard. The captain barked orders, galvanizing his men into action.
"Man battle stations! Move yourselves! Dive! DIVE!"
The submarine attempted to dive deeper into the water, but Godzilla advanced towards the ship hungrily. The King hadn't eaten in many years, and had the luck of finding an easy meal…
Godzilla swam swiftly through the waves and drew closer towards the accelerating sub. With a growl he seized the ship, raking the hull with his claws as he started to tear it apart. Inside the ship, chaos reigned as the crew struggled to avoid the water pouring in through the sub's hull. Several crewmen were knocked flat, with others struggling to avoid drowning as the sub began to flood.
Godzilla tore chunks out of the sub, ignoring the small, insignificant creatures crawling about his fingertips and inside this metal construct. All he was concerned with was the sustenance inside this thing.
With a great screech of shearing metal, Godzilla ripped the power source out of the submarine. He monster held the nuclear reactor close to his heart, and his spines began to flash blue as he drained the radioactivity out of the reactor. As it fed, the creature began to grow, its spines flashing as it grew from 80 meters to about 100 meters in height.
As the monster fed, the sub sank into the ocean depths. There were no survivors.
Godzilla finished feeding, and dropped the reactor into the ocean. Growling, it submerged itself and leisurely swam west.
It was headed back to its old stomping grounds, and woe to the poor creatures that got in its way…..
Gendo Ikari scowled. Fuyutsuki glanced at his superior as the bearded man put down the phone.
"The UN submarine sent to Oshima Island was destroyed by what the last transmissions said to be a giant monster."
Fuyutsuki's expression didn't change as he asked, "An Angel?"
"Doubtful. The recordings stated that the sub was torn open rather than simply blasted to pieces." Gendo settled into his trademark pose. "It's headed towards Tokyo-3, and will be here in a few hours."
Fuyutsuki's eyes narrowed as he wondered aloud, "Could that creature have survived? It was sealed in a volcano back in 1989…."
Gendo's frown deepened. "Fuyutsuki, you don't think…?"
"After that monster was sealed in the most oppressive environment on Earth? Doubtful…"
Gendo sat down in his chair and gave orders. "Prepare the Evas for sortie. Get the pilots."
Fuyutsuki's eyes narrowed as he mused, "It appears humanity will have to commit regicide once more.
"Baka-Shinji! You forgot to make my lunch!"
"I'm sorry! I was busy with my homework all morning and forgot to make yours!"
"Are you saying I have to starve all day!?"
Asuka and Shinji were arguing over lunch. Well, Asuka was arguing, Shinji was just trying to eat his lunch in peace.
Shinji was telling the truth, too. Thanks to the latest Angel's attack, he had fallen behind on most of his schoolwork, and had been forced to pull all-nighters in order to catch up. In fact, today he had to pass in a hand-written report on pre-Second Impact history, concerning the bombing of Old Tokyo in 1954. Along with cooking breakfast that morning for himself and his two pretty roommates, he had to wake up extra early to finish writing that.
Asuka didn't quite see it that way. To her, Shinji had just been lazy, and she decided he needed to get his head out of his ass. The fact that his sync ratio had risen a few points closer to hers didn't have anything to do with it. Nope, she wasn't mad about that at all.
She was about to yell at the Third Child some more when a raucous voice called out, "Aww, is the married couple fighting again?"
The entire class burst into gales of laughter as both Eva pilots turned blushed mightily. Touji, the one who had made the remark, had just walked in with Kensuke. The Second and Third Children glared at them both.
Asuka shouted, "Shut up, Suzuhara!"
Shinji added, "Yeah, we're not a couple!"
The two of them were spared further embarrassment when a voice came in over the loudspeakers.
"WILL REI AYANAMI, ASUKA LANGLEY SOHRYU AND SHINJI IKARI PLEASE REPORT TO THE FRONT OFFICE?"
Asuka smirked. "Excuse us. The pilots (she punctuated this with a haughty expression as she sneered at the two "stooges") have work to do. GET UP, SHINJI!"
Shinji was about to finish eating his lunch before Asuka grabbed him and all but dragged him out the door.
Meanwhile, in NERV, Ritsuko and the Bridge Technicians (the last person to refer to trio as "the bridge bunnies" had been put in traction) were trying to analyze some incredibly odd data from a target the Magi supercomputers had detected headed towards Tokyo-3.
"No AT field pattern has been detected in the target."
"Blood pattern is unknown."
"Target is exuding high levels of radioactivity."
"Currently swimming towards Tokyo-3!"
Maya read the Magi's findings aloud. "Target will enter the bay in 2 hours."
Ritsuko frowned. "What is this thing? It's not an Angel, but the Geiger counter is going wild…"
Aoba spoke next, "Satellite imaging unavailable!"
Gendo and Fuyutsuki stood at the top of the NERV bridge.
"Shouldn't we tell them?"
"No. Akagi already knows what we're dealing with and will tell Katsuragi everything she needs to know."
"True, but this monster makes the Angels look weak."
"But it cannot generate an AT field."
Misato drove as fast as she could to NERV HQ, with all three pilots in tow. Shinji and Asuka were pointedly not looking at each other after the debacle earlier today, and Rei was as quiet as ever.
Misato had whipped out her cell phone and was talking with Ritsuko. "What do you mean, it's not an Angel?"
Ritsuko answered on the other end of the line, "The Magi aren't certain just what it is, just that it's huge, radioactive, and headed this way."
"Do we have visual yet?"
"No. The target will get here in a couple of hours."
Misato scowled as she rounded another corner. "I'm on my way with the Children."
The next 2 hours went by in a blur for the 2 pilots. One minute they had just entered NERV, the next they were rushed to the changing rooms to get in their plugsuits, and finally they were shoved into their Evas and launched.
Asuka spoke. "If it's not an Angel, what do they need us for?"
"Because whatever that thing is, it tore apart an entire nuclear submarine like it was tinfoil. We know that from the last transmission sent still don't know what it is. The only thing we know for certain is that it's radioactive, and extremely powerful."
Shinji asked, "But Misato, how could it do that without an AT field?"
"Good question."
The Major frowned, and thought to herself, "What kind of monster rampages through an entire fleet of state of the art warships and keeps going? I thought we only had to worry about the Angels…"
Misato decided that the three Evas would be airlifted to the shore, where the target was scheduled to arrive in a few minutes. Meanwhile the JSSDF was stationed at various vantage points around the bay area. For the moment, all was quiet, and there was nothing to do but wait.
The wait was not a long one.
Asuka strained to see out over the bay. "I don't see anything. You see it yet, Third?"
Shinji squinted. "No, I don't."
Unit 00 pointed. "It is there."
"Where-AH!"
Abruptly the water began to bubble and froth as something massive began to rise out of the depths. A lengthy sinewy tail emerged first, rising up before splashing down with a wet slap. A row of ivory spines emerged, glowing with a brilliant sapphire light as water cascaded off of them in torrents. The charcoal-scaled creature rose up out of the depths and gave an earsplitting roar.
Fuyutsuki groaned inwardly.
"Godzilla raids again…"
