Echoes of Destruction 2

The Conspiracy Web

Chapter 1: the assignment

"Awww, come on! Not Kumonga" cried nineteen year old Ryan hawk, "Can't you give me something cool? Like Godzilla, or the anniversary of Bagan's advance. Even Minya would be more exciting than a giant spider; everyone's got one of those."

A Mr. Dai Aihara chief editor of the Daikaiju Digest did not waver in the least to the teenagers complaints.

"You know Ryan" Mr. Aihara said with a smile creeping up his face, "I have thought about doing an article on the mating habits of the Kamacuras. Not much is known about them since they were discovered last year. So if you really don't what to do Kumonga …." Aihara commented.

Ryan's eyes went wide at the suggestion, then he broke into a big toothy smile, "Did I ever tell you how much I love Kumonga. I mean all those legs and eyes, how cool can you get!" Ryan voiced with a sudden burst of enthusiasm.

Dai crossed his arms over his chest and gave Ryan a "that's what I thought" look.

Ryan then looked to his left at his extremely attractive coworker Kari Hiraki, "Can I take Kari with me?"



Kari rolled her eyes as Mr. Aihara shook his head.

"Aww come on. Dai! Kari! I can't do this alone!" Ryan then stopped for a moment, "Well I can …But it would be a whole lot easier if Kari came along."

Kari whipped her long black hair away from her computer monitor and faced Ryan, "Why don't you ask Riya san to go with you?"

Ryan's eyes went wide again, "She hates me! She thinks I'm immature."

Kari smiled, "that's Because you put a Snake in her handbag, and then you glued her mouse to the desk, oh! and after that you..."

"Aright! Alright!" Ryan shouted, "I get the picture, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't want her along."

Chief Editor Dai Aihara smiled, "Actually Ryan it does. I have officially assigned Miss. Riya Kanada to this report, which means she will be joining you on your tropical tour."

Ryan's eyes squinted and narrowed on Aihara, "You're doing this just to annoy me aren't you?"

Ahiara's smile never faded, "I want my newspaper to be run like a well oiled machine, which means there's no room for petty squabbles among its employees. I want us all to work harmoniously with one another, like the crew of the Mecha-Godzilla, true professionals. You didn't see any of them bickering when Bagan came, No Sir! And I expect the same from you Ryan Hawk."



Ryan just stared at Aihara then got up, left the room, slammed the door and nearly ran over his male coworker Ryoja Endo on his way out.

Ryoja entered the room "What's with Hawk?"

Kari looked his way with a humorous smile on her face, "Dai assigned him and Riya to do a report together on Kumonga."

Ryoja faked a painful wince, "Ouch! I bet he's goanna be steamed for hours. Does Riya know yet?"

"I was just about to call her" said Aihara, "Want me to put her on speaker?" Ryoja and Kari looked at each other, then at Aihara with mischievous smiles and said in unison, "Definitely."

Ryan slammed the door to his apartment and began to rant out loud to himself, "Stupid Aihara! Stupid Kumonga! Who's he kidding; no one cares about that dumb spider. And I certainly don't need Kanada!"

Ryan let out a long sigh as his gray tabby cat Gabara nuzzled against his legs. Ryan looked down and smiled, "Hey Gab."

Ryan reached down and scratched the cat's ears, "How's your day been? Bet it was better than mine."

Gabara simply purred as his master continued to scratch him behind the ears, "Yeah you got it easy, sleep, eat and sleep" Ryan sighed.

"Well I guess I better start packing, I leave the day after tomorrow. But don't you worry Gabara, someday I will become the world's greatest Kaijulogist and then Aihara will eat every word!"

Ryan then looked around at the clutter in his room, "Guess I better start by picking all this stuff up." Ryan flipped on the television and turned to Tokyo news which was reporting on the earlier rampage of the Mechani-kong built by an insane scientist named Dr. Who.

"Amateur!" screamed Ataru Walker the owner and CEO of silver fox incorporated as he watched the news on Mechani-kong, "I don't believe this! I spend over a billion dollars on that stupid mutant iguana, send it over to one of the most powerful nations on earth, and it barely gets the cover of the weekly world news. But this moron, who creates a mechanical ape and attacks Tokyo like every other monster, he practically gets his own talk show!"

Walker got out of his throne like office chair and shouted out his door, " Erickson!! Get Your scrawny backside into my office, NOW!!"

A mousy little man scurried into Walkers office, "Y-Yes sir?"

Ataru eyed him with disdained, "Have you seen the news?"

Steve wasn't sure what sort of answer Walker required of him, " Umm yes sir. About the Mechani-kong correct? It is a rather ingenious device."

Steve immediately knew he had said the wrong thing, as he could see flames dancing within the eyes of his boss. Steve quickly compensated by adding a compliment, " But of course sir you could do much better, in fact I know you can." that seemed to do the trick, Walker cooled down and relaxed a bit into his chair which he often did when he was deep in thought.

Steve wiped away a bead of sweat and waited until his employer spoke to him again. Steve sat there for a moment, afraid to break the silence, but he knew he had better say something, or he would be here all day.

"Umm sir?" Steve said, voice shaking with intimidation.



Walker didn't even notice, he continued to stare into space, "Your right you know" Walker said at last, "I could do better, much better. But what to create, it would have to be something that would be an obvious slap in the face to Who….maybe" Ataru's face suddenly lit up, "That's it! Ericsson do we still have those cells from Kong's rampage in New York?"

Steve thought for a moment then nodded, "Yeah, we've never been able to find a use for them."

"Excellent" Walker said with a devilish grin spreading across his face, "And what about the Godzilla cells we stole from the Japanese government? Are they still active?"

again Erickson nodded " Yeah, so long as we keep them frozen there's nothing to worry about, Why do you ask?"

Walker simply smiled, he grabbed his sliver headed dragon cane and put on his black cape with red inner lining, "Come with me Ericsson, we have much work to do."

Ryan hawk literally fell out of bed as soon as his television alarm came on, the volume maxed out. He quickly scrambled off his couch and smacked the mute button, he knew that later he would get an earful from the landlord about how much the other tenants hated it when he did this kind of thing, but that would have to wait until he got back, today was the day he flew out to Sollgel island to do an article on Kumonga, his most ridicules assignment to date.

"Stupid spider" Ryan grumbled as he quickly got dressed. "Hundreds of Kaiju and I get stuck with a big bug. Aihara better double my paycheck for this assignment."

Ryan walked into his kitchen and pulled a box of Kaiju crunchies from the top of his refrigerator. "Well at least I can enjoy breakfast before I'm stranded on an uninhabited island."



Ryan tilted the cereal box so the crude drawing of Godzilla fighting some hundred headed serpent faced sideways. Three grainy Godzilla feet and a Mothra marshmallow fell into Ryan's bowl, his face drooped, "Wonderful. Nothing like a bowl of air to start the day."

Ryan sighed and got up from the table, it looked like it would be Burger King again. He grabbed his favorite blue and white sports jacket, his two suitcases and was out the door.

Outside Ryan fumbled in his pocket for the apartment shed key, "Come on I know it's in here! Where oh where…" Ryan's hand hit something cold and metal, "Ah ha! There it is!"

Ryan pushed the key into its appropriate slot and swung open the door reveling a shiny chrome painted mountain bike. He pulled the bike out and kicked up the stand, one day he would have to trade in this thing so he could actually get something with a motor in it.

It was a long 3 hour bike ride to the airport, and as Ryan finally arrived he pulled up into a very narrow alleyway that he knew with absolute certainty no-one would ever enter. People thought it was haunted with some ghost curse thingy, little did anyone know that it was actually Ryan who invented that urban legend.

When he was young Ryan's father had moved to Japan after receiving a promotion. They moved to Tokyo and spent a good seven years here. Ryan unfortunately did not make many friends; he was a foreigner, a gaijin as the Japanese called him. Everyday coming home from school he was chased by the neighborhood bullies, sometimes they caught him sometimes he escaped, but everyday it was the same thing. That was the reason he invented that ludicrous myth, he had never seen anyone so frightened of a bed sheet and a Halloween mask.

Ryan suddenly snapped back to the present as he heard his watch alarm go off, "Oh just perfect!" he shouted, "I'm going to be late!" Ryan stowed away his bike under a gray canopy that was lying on top of some wooden crates and rushed off towards the airport.

Ryan looked around the airport trying to spot Riya, he finally found her standing next to the plane exit. She was looking at her watch, and by the scowl on her face he knew he was going to get an earful.

Ryan did not have to wait long, as soon as he came in to Riya kanakas field of vision she exploded. "Where have you been? The planes taking off in less than ten minutes! What have you been doing this whole time? Sleeping?" Ryan sighed this was going to be a very long flight.