Back to Reality

Alan suddenly awakened, gasping. He sat bolt-upright in his shock, his face streaked with sweat. Though his eyes were wide open, his vision was blurred. The memories of what had happened in that bunker were very fresh, and he could not believe that he had fallen into such an obvious trap. The sights in that complex had been too horrible to contemplate. He hoped that the others had been able to find some answers. Speaking of which, he assumed that they had dragged him back to the Serenity after those creatures had attacked, for he was obviously not still in the bunker. They had to have taken him to the infirmary. He was surprised at this; he thought José would have been the sort to save his own neck above all other priorities.

When his eyes refocused, he realised that he wasn't in the infirmary. In fact, he wasn't in any part of the Serenity or in the bunker. Unless he was very much mistaken, he had awakened in an ordinary bedroom in an ordinary apartment. The sounds of traffic could be heard coming from outside, and a regular cityscape could be seen through the windows. A pair of blue jeans, a black shirt and a grey bomber jacket were unceremoniously slouched on a nearby chair. The apartment looked like it had not been tidied for several days.

After what he had seen a few short moments ago, the ordinariness of this place left Alan feeling utterly perplexed. The biggest surprise, however, was yet to come. For as he rolled to move himself out of the bed, he caught sight of his arm. No longer was it covered in hard, grey, pebbly scales and ending in an animalistic four-fingered claw. Now it was a perfectly ordinary human arm, with fine hairs growing out of it and five fingers on the hand. Hardly daring to believe what he was seeing, Alan jumped out of the bed and crossed to the bathroom, taking a good look at himself in the shaving mirror.

Staring back at him was not the reptile mutant that he had gotten so used to seeing. Instead, a human man in his late 30s/early 40s gazed back at him with blue-grey eyes and stubble around the chin and neck. With one hand he felt the skin and rough hairs on his face, while with the other he reached down to the small of his back, noticing that the tail was now gone. Opening his mouth, he now saw that he had a perfectly human mixture of incisors, fangs and molars. There was absolutely no sign that he had ever been a victim of the Crisis Control Intelligence agency's terrible experiments.

Stood still and shocked into silence for several minutes, Alan's heart jumped into his throat at the sudden shrill sound of the telephone. He staggered out of the bathroom and into the main living area, forgetting that he was still not dressed. It was now dawning on him that this was his old apartment in Tokyo. He had lived in the city for nearly twenty years, but that had been hundreds of years ago. He glanced over at a calendar pinned to the wall; according to it, the date was the 12th of April, 2006. He didn't dare to believe it, much less try to figure out how this was possible. He was back, in the early 21st century, in his apartment, back to his human self. He collapsed into a chair and held his head in his hands, feeling as if it would explode if he didn't.

The phone would not cease to ring, so Alan resigned himself to the fact that he would have to answer it. After such a long time of not seeing one, he felt as if the telephone was completely alien, and he very nearly dropped the receiver as he held it up to his ear.

"Moshi-moshi?" he asked, still remembering the Japanese language. If this was indeed Tokyo, then there was not likely to be anybody speaking English on the other end of the line.

"About time, Alan!" a familiar voice said on the other end. "What took you so long? I've been listening to that phone ring for ages!"

Now Alan felt as if he needed his ears testing. The voice on the other end of the phone belonged to his old friend Yuji Shinoda, the self-proclaimed 'Kaiju-ologist'. Part of him knew that this was just not possible, but then again everything else that he was seeing should not be. He sat stunned into silence for a moment, only snapped out of his reverie when Shinoda spoke again.

"Hey, Alan?" he asked. "Where are you? Have you fallen asleep at the phone?" Frantically, Alan searched his brain for a story. Telling Shinoda that he had somehow time-travelled from the far future seemed far-fetched even to his ears.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here," he groaned. "Partied a bit too hard last night."

"I'm not surprised," Shinoda chuckled. "You wanted to get every second's worth out of your stag night."

"Stag night?" Alan stammered.

"You really are out of it, aren't you?" Shinoda asked, sounding slightly annoyed. "You are still getting married to Miki Saegusa, aren't you?"

If there was one name Alan had never forgotten, it was Miki Saegusa. Of all the people that he had encountered in his life, she was the one who had been most dear to him. Having to part ways with her when he went into cryo-sleep was the most heart-breaking moment of his life. By rights she shouldn't be in this time period, however; she wasn't supposed to exist for another forty years. He tried to think how he could talk about all that he had seen in front of Shinoda; it was almost a given that he would not believe him.

"Where is she?" he managed to ask.

"She's been evacuated right now," Shinoda replied. "The poor girl was so upset; she had been having her wedding dress fitted when the alarms sounded."

"Evacuated?" Alan asked dumbly.

"For God's sake, Alan..." Shinoda replied, exasperated. "You must have taken some strong sleeping pills. Don't tell me you slept through the sirens? Gojira's on his way!"

Alan had been in such a state of shock that he had almost forgotten that, in this time period, he was still a G-Chaser; a freelance photographer who had dedicated himself to discovering the secrets of the titanic monster known as Godzilla. The creature's cells had been used in the experiments that had turned him into a miniature version of Godzilla in the first place. Already those events were starting to feel like a very distant memory to him. He decided that, for the time-being at least, he would play along with whatever was going on here, and try to act like he used to.

"I'll be out there as soon as I can," he said. "Any idea where he's headed?"

"Towards the bay area," Shinoda replied. "You can meet us at the highway by the harbour; that's the best place to view from. See you there, and hurry; you have about ten or fifteen minutes." With that, he hung up.

Alan quickly got himself dressed, grabbed the camera standing on the bedroom desk and left the apartment. As he headed to the elevators it all started to come back to him. He knew where to go, what streets to take and how to use these 21st century implements; it was just like recalling a set of blueprints in his mind. He still could not get over the fact that he was here at all; it was too disturbing, and yet too wonderful, to fully process.

He stepped out of the elevator and into the underground car park, where amongst the various old cars he found another familiar sight; his black Kawasaki motorcycle. He had missed many chances to ride similar vehicles as time had worn on, so to find himself reunited with what had once been his dearest possession was almost too good to be true. Sitting himself in the saddle and starting the engine, the throbbing feeling against his legs was one which he had missed terribly. The bike roared out of the car park and into the dazzling sunshine over 21st-century Tokyo. He weaved his way through the streets, which looked somewhat empty, but this shouldn't have surprised him given that the evacuation had taken place. Only a few stragglers were left, and Alan paid no attention to them. He just wanted to get to the site where he would see his old friend again, and he knew the route like the back of his hand.

Weaving through the abandoned cars and speeding down the highway, Alan eventually reached a corner of the road that looked out over the bay. It was a spectacular view; Alan had often come here first whenever a chase was on, just to see Godzilla arriving on Japanese soil. The monster had been attracted to the nuclear (and later plasma) power plants, and since Japan was the nearest landmass to his refuge on Ogasawara Island the Japanese people would always have to endure his 'visits'. On rare occasions Godzilla would go the other way to the American West Coast, but he largely stayed near Japan, becoming some kind of unofficial (not to mention very destructive) mascot.

As he approached the viewpoint, he found that a small group was waiting for him. Two figures were astride motorcycles like himself, while there was also a silver car parked close by with the logo of the Godzilla Prediction Network emblazoned on the side. The GPN was dedicated to studying Godzilla, attempting to track his movements and sell the data to businesses and insurance companies, often working closely with freelance G-Chasers such as Alan to do so. The general idea was to help the populace adapt to Godzilla, rather than try to fight a losing battle against him. Government agencies had tried to shut them down in the past with no success.

Almost as soon as Alan arrived, a loud, trumpet-like roar could be heard above the whoosh of spray from the sea. Alan not heard it for centuries, but he would recognise it anywhere. It was the roar of Godzilla, and now he could see the titanic reptile emerging from the ocean, covered in the familiar slate-grey scales and with three rows of dorsal spines sticking out of the back. The long tail lashed around behind him, sending sea spray everywhere. Alan was lost for words; it had been too long since he had last seen Godzilla anywhere, and he had not realised how much he had missed seeing his surrogate father, though the notion that he was ever related to Godzilla now seemed distinctly remote.

"Finally dragged yerself here, did ya?" said a voice with a Texan drawl behind him. Alan turned to see that it was one of the other two motorcyclists who had spoken. The speaker was a blond-haired young man with piercing blue eyes. Beside him was a Japanese national with silver hair and lines on his face. Alan's jaw fell open as he recognised his G-Chasing compatriots Joel Sellinger and Tetsuo Yagame. The last time Alan had seen them they were not human; they had been victims of the experiments with Organiser G-1 just like Alan was. Tetsuo had been driven insane with his alter-ego Kaiser, while Joel had been barely capable of thinking above the level of an animal. Yet there they both were, smiling and human.

"What's wrong, Alan?" Tetsuo asked kindly. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Alan shook his head, hardly daring to believe his eyes. He wanted to say something – anything – about what he knew would happen to them, but the words came undone in his throat. The more he tried to think about those terrible events the less real they seemed to be.

"Nothing," he eventually mumbled.

"Thank Christ," Joel said jokingly. "Let's just get some snaps. The papers will be looking out for these, if nothing else." So all three chasers held up their cameras and began to snap their photos. From this position they were able to get some terrific views. Alan already found himself planning to move further down the highway to get more progress shots of Godzilla as he made his way inland to the plasma plant. It was as if the events he had witnessed before this had never happened.

"Keep it steady, Io!" a voice was shouting in Japanese to his left. Alan turned to see the GPN's car, with the scruffy-looking scientist Yuji Shinoda at the driver's seat. In the passenger seat next to him was Yuki Ichinose, a reporter who had been assigned to work with the GPN in their pursuit of the exclusives on Godzilla. She and Shinoda had a very rocky start to their working relationship, but Alan remembered hearing that they had gotten married after the last time they had parted ways. That had been after King Ghidorah's attack in Knoxville, but looking around it was hard to believe that had really happened. Leaning out of one of the back windows was Shinoda's young daughter Io, pointing a handheld sensor device in Godzilla's direction. Seeing Alan, Shinoda gave a quick thumbs-up to him before returning to his data-gathering. Alan, his sense of astonishment growing all the time, looked back towards Godzilla when he heard the sound of jet engines overhead.

"Here he comes again..." Tetsuo said. Looking up, Alan saw another familiar sight, one which he had been spent weeks searching for; the very reason he had gone out into space in the first place. He had not expected to see him again under these circumstances.

Kiryuu Knight was being carried into the area, suspended in the air by thick cables attached to three large Shirisagi aircraft. As they approached Godzilla, the cables were released, and the giant bio-mechanical dinosaur landed smoothly, assisted by jets on his body. The first thing Alan had noticed was that his face was covered by the metallic helmet that, for a long time, was the only face Alan had known him to have. He still remembered the incredible shock he had when first seeing the helmet come clean away, revealing the face of the first Godzilla underneath.

"Afraid of messing your dreadlocks up, granddad?" he thought aloud as he snapped photos of Kiryuu's shining metallic body.

"Come again?" Joel said, in a thoroughly confused tone. Alan turned to look at him, now puzzled himself.

"Don't you remember?" Alan asked. "Kiryuu's got his helmet on. I was just wondering if he was afraid of messing up his dreadlocks."

"What are you talkin' about?" Joel asked. "Kiryuu ain't got any dreads. That hunk o' tin is his face. You forgotten that? I'm sure I heard you callin' him yer grandpappy too. I think you've been hangin' around Godzilla too long." He gave a good-natured chuckle at this, but Alan continued to look very confused. He was positive that he remembered Kiryuu having a face of flesh and emerald-green dreadlocks. It was one of his most vivid memories. He shook his head, turning back towards the two Godzillas.

Kiryuu was in the process of pushing Godzilla back towards the ocean, an idea which Godzilla was resisting fiercely. He tried to use his blue plasma breath, but Kiryuu punched him, throwing off-balance. Alan was sure that Kiryuu wouldn't be acting like this normally, but then again he didn't expect a machine to be capable of emotion, only of carrying out orders from the human controllers. The idea of Kiryuu having dreadlocks or a 'real' face now also seemed very silly to him for some reason. He satisfied himself with watching the short-lived fight, as Godzilla was beaten back. Evidently realising that he was outclassed, he waded back out towards the ocean, the Mechagodzilla watching him depart.

"Another short visit," Shinoda then said. "Before that Mekagojira surfaced, I had a lot of time to gather data. Nowadays I'm lucky if I have a few minutes." He sighed wearily as he stepped out of his car. "That'll do, Io. Let's pack up and call it a day."

"Hai, papa," Io nodded, climbing back into the rear seat of the car, sitting amongst a pile of computer equipment. Alan couldn't help smiling as he saw them; he could not believe he was reunited with the Shinodas, who had been among his oldest, dearest friends back in the 21st century. He wondered why he kept referring to the century in the past tense; it seemed that, once again, this was his century. He felt like he had finally come home after a long journey.

"Alan?" Shinoda asked. Some of what Alan was thinking must have shown on his face, for the scientist looked a bit worried. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah..." Alan said, in a faint voice. He turned back to see Godzilla submerge into the deep ocean water and begin swimming out towards the horizon. For the first time in such a long time, he felt at peace.

"Everything's great," he said.