And now we begin Chapter 4. Enjoy!
TO CATCH THE BLOB
The helicopter, with the black-printed letters UNXCC looking almost like a reverse shine on its white metal body, descended onto the dock, a few miles downstream of the chemical plant.
Just as before, the door slid open sideways, and out stepped Katagiri, with his expensive suit and grey temples.
"General," Osaki greeted him icily. "What brings you here?"
"In case you haven't noticed," Katagiri responded, "There happens to be a creature acting like a sponge for toxins running loose."
"One that would probably be dead if you hadn't ordered your men to fire on it." Osaki replied.
"Those are fusion-core missiles, captain. They could blast Tokyo Tower apart."
"And yet they had no effect at all," Osaki reminded him. "Again. My people had the situation under control."
"I'm sure," Katagiri stated darkly. "I trust you at least know what we're dealing with this time?"
"One of our members is about to explain the whole thing," Osaki answered, struggling to hold back a degree of satisfaction due to his disdain for the general.
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Once Osaki and Katagiri had accompanied the rest of G-Force inside the ship, things could proceed.
Takuya stood up and switched on the projector.
The projection screen behind him was suddenly filled with what looked like tiny cells with myriads of tendrils around them.
"Just watch this," he instructed.
The tendrils reached out towards a small amount of some other, dark-black matter, around its own size. The tiny tendrils grabbed hold of it, pulling the two together as the cell parted, enveloping the other substance. As it did so, it suddenly expanded in size until its meal was complete.
"This," Takuya explained, "Is Project: Hedorah. I'll begin with the first question on everyone's mind: What is it?" He explained: "Hedorah is an organism that consumes hazardous, non-bio-degradable substances, created by the Japanese Government."
"They made that thing?" Miyuki exclaimed.
"Yes," Takuya continued, "Intentionally, actually. Hedorah was to be a revolutionary system; a semi-sentient organism comprised entirely of these genetically engineered cells; it has no mind, no consciousness to speak of. It was created as a solution to the ever-growing problem we're all familiar with: Pollution. The intention of the project was to create something that could absorb and break down hazardous materials in a manner that was favourable to the environment."
"Yeah, except it doesn't," Kazama pointed out.
"That's where we get to the unintentional part," Takuya continued, "During initial tests- back then it was only around the size of a pen- Hedorah turned out to produce highly toxic by-products of the absorption process. When we were determining exactly what it gave off other than sulphuric acid, it escaped by burning a hole through the wall. Through the acid-proofed wall."
"Damn," Kazama commented.
"Right. To put it simply, Hedorah is a mindless eating machine. Unlike Kazama, however, it consumes highly toxic materials that no living being could tolerate. It's in a permanent feeding frenzy; the more it consumes, the more it grows, and as it grows, the more it's driven to consume. As we've seen, it also seems to be evolving; it's clearly capable of defending itself. And it won't stop," he looked around the table, "It won't ever stop. It'll just eat until there's nothing left to eat, by which time it could give off god-knows-how-many toxins. Make no mistake… Hedorah represents the single greatest environmental threat this planet has ever faced."
"And humans made it," Miki spoke up. "I'd say it's ironic, but really…"
"So what actions have been taken against it?" Katagiri pressed.
"Immediately after Hedorah escaped, we contacted the armed forces," Takuya replied. "A few hours after it escaped, it attacked that oil tanker. After we failed to locate it again, I contacted G-Force." He nodded to his comrades.
"And not the UNXCC?" Katagiri demanded, "Not the professionals in such matters as these."
"Oh, yeah," Miki grinned sweetly, "You guys never make mistakes…" She pretended to cough, mixing the noises with what sound like "Godzilla" and "Rodan".
"The UNXCC will take control of this matter," Katagiri announced authoritatively.
"Not happening," Osaki cut in, "We've been assigned to this."
"We could cooperate," Takuya suggested. "Besides, if we're going to stop Hedorah, we'll need all the help we can get."
"OK, Doc, so here's the million-dollar question," Kazama spoke up, "…How do we stop it?"
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"Osaki!" Miyuki shouted the radio room, brining the team leader, Miki and Akane racing up to the bridge.
"Hedorah?" Osaki asked urgently.
"It got spotted by a fishing trawler," Miyuki confirmed, "Just after they hauled up a net full of poisoned fish."
"Where is it now?"
"A stone's throw away from an offshore oil platform. And if it eats that stuff, there's no telling how big it'll make it."
"Wait here," Osaki instructed, bolting back into the ship, down the stairs and into the lab.
"Hedorah's been spotted," he informed Takuya and Kazama, "What have we got, gentlemen?"
"Observe," Takuya announced, lifting up a high-tech looking rifle that, on closer inspection, Osaki saw to contain a canister of gas.
"We rigged up one of these for each of us," Kazama explained. "They don't carry a lot though, since it's so dense.
"Liquid Nitrogen," Takuya explained, "These can freeze the target at almost -200 degrees."
"The doc said, we can't stop this thing with conventional weapons," Kazama explained, "Well this is something unconventional."
"Will it work?" Osaki asked.
"Hedorah is in a near-liquid state at room temperature," Kazama explained, "This should freeze it solid, at which point it can be extracted and disposed of safely."
"Sounds good to me," Miyuki commented as she, Akane and Miki entered the room behind Osaki.
"Only thing is, we'll only get a few shots out of each of these," Takuya explained. "Odds are, we'll need a distraction."
"I always thought Godzilla was pretty distracting," Kazama suggested.
"Godzilla?" Miki gasped, "I… what about those gasses? We'll never get him into a bio-suit."
"Godzilla's regenerative abilities should reduce most of the damage," Takuya explained.
"We'll do it fast," Osaki suggested. "We'll only need Godzilla for a moment, Miki. Then you can send him back."
"…Just like last time?" Miki asked coldly.
"No. We just need him for a second, so that Hedorah will concentrate on him."
"Alright," Miki finally answered. "I'll call him."
So there's Hedorah's origin in the Kaiju Wars Universe. The only powers Hedorah will lose are the two that made zero sense to me: Flying and laser-eyes. As you can see, though, he'll still be extremely dangerous.
By the way, I've got a new fanfic up, based on the works of the artistic genius that is GodzillaSamurai. It's called "Godzilla: Earth Destruction Directive".
All Reviews Welcome!